Rocky Tierno enlisted at 18 Years of age because he knew enlisting could afford him an opportunity to get into West Point Prep School. He had a choice of duty assignments and selected Hawaii. He got to Hawaii via Brooklyn, Charleston, the Panama Canal, San Diego ,and San Francisco. The ship he was on, was transporting several French cannons which were dropped off in San Diego.
He was assigned to the 3rd Combat Engineer Regiment of the Square Division or Hawaiinan Division. The Square Division was later restructured and he wounded up in the 24th Triad Division of the 3rd Combat Engineering Batalion. In July of 1941 he had the opportunity to go the the U.S Military Academy Prep school at Schofield Barracks.(To Be Continued)

I enlisted at the age of 18 because it would afford me an opportunity to get into West Point via the prep school. I had a choice of duty assignments and selected Hawaii to get as far away from home as possible. I got to Hawaii via Brooklyn, Charleston,SC, the Panama Canal,San Diego, and San Francisco.The ship was the Hunter Ligget and it dropped off several French made cannons in San Diego. The Hunter Liggett sailed to Honolulu and I made my way to Schofield Barracks in March of 1941. I was assigned to the 3rd Combat Engineer Regiment of th Square Division or Hawaiian Division.

Eventually the Square Division was restructured and I wound up in the 24th Triad Division in the 3rd Combat Engineering Batallion. I applied for a an oppurtunity to go to the USMA Prep School at Schofield Barracks. The other choce was to accept a promotion to Corporal with a unit that went to the Philippines to build fortifications. Most of that unit never returned as they perished in the Bataan Death March.

On Sunday December 7, 1941 I went to Catholic Mass at 0700. The plan was to to breakfast after services to the USS Arizona as part of an Army/Navy Exchange. The attack began about 0745 as I was walking back to the barracks after Mass. I observed the Japanese attack planes making their bombing runs on the fleet at Pearl Harbo and recognized the Rising Sun Icon on the planes knew immediately that Pearl was coming under attack. The Japanese also bombed a refuse dump and ball field; each had fuel or oil stored underground----this made it clear that their intelligence was quite good.

I returned to my barracks and was assigned anti aircaft duty. The next day our unit went to Pearl Harbor for defensive duty in case of additional attacks and this continued for several days. Over the next few months I was involved in building the defenses around Pearl Harbor. We build bunkers, roads and other fortifications. In March of 1942 I was notified that I had received an appointment to West Point and departed for San Francisco where I was discharged and had to borrow $300 to secure transport to the east coast.

I graduated from the USMA in 1945.

Retired from service in 1976 in Carlisle,PA.