North Braddock native survived Pearl Harbor

The “Greatest Generation” got its moniker because of people like Frank R. Regina.

A World War II veteran and North Braddock native, Mr. Regina was aboard the USS Utah when it was torpedoed by Japanese bombers during the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor.

Though he loathed talking about his experiences during the war, Mr. Regina knew he was among the last surviving sailors from the “date which will live in infamy,” as it was famously referred to by thenPresident Franklin D. Roosevelt, and he relented in recent years, sharing his memories in several media interviews.

Mr. Regina, 95, died Saturday at his retirement home in Forest Hills after a brief illness.

Until recent years, even his family members knew little of his haunting recollections of the war.

“I just learned about all of this for the first time, from articles in the paper,” said his niece, Regina Bichsel, 74, of White Oak. “He said he just didn’t want to talk about it for a long, long time.”

His cardiologist, Ricci Minella, said Mr. Regina was “a quiet hero.”

“I’ve known him for over 25 years and it was a long time before I knew he was a Pearl Harbor survivor,” said Dr. Minella, of Scott. “It was probably 15 years before he told me. He didn’t talk much about it.”

The son of Slovakian immigrants, Mr. Regina left Scott High School during his senior year to enlist in the Navy in 1940, when the U.S. hadn’t yet gotten involved in the conflict that engulfed much of Europe.

“I didn’t think much of it,” Mr. Regina said in a 2013 story in the Pittsburgh PostGazette. “I wanted to see the world.”

But, Ms. Bichsel later learned that there was a more pressing reason her uncle — just 17 years old at the time — was so anxious to enlist.

With six siblings, times were tough for Mr. Regina’s family.

“My grandpap had to sign a permission slip,” she said. “His mother wanted him to wait; she didn’t want him to go. But, he felt he had to make it easier for grandpap with one less mouth to feed.”

On Dec. 7, 1941, Mr. Regina had just finished breakfast shortly before 8 a.m., when the first torpedoes struck the Utah.

“We were the first ship hit,” he said in 2013. “I could see the Japanese pilots as they flew by.”

The 32-year-old battleship, moored at Ford Island, capsized within minutes.

As the hulking vessel rolled to port, Mr. Regina leaped from the starboard side and swam to Ford Island, where he was strafed by Japanese planes.

“I was running when they shot at me,” he said. “I could see the bullets hitting the ground.”

Mr. Regina was among the 461 Utah crew members who survived the attack. Fifty-eight did not.

The next day, he boarded the USS St. Louis, where he survived multiple engagements and bombings until his enlistment ended in 1943.

But, Mr. Regina felt he could do more.

After just 30 days at home, he returned for three additional years, undertaking submarine courses and serving in Germany, where he scuttled German patrol boats after the war in Europe ended. When the war in the Pacific came to a close in 1945, he was serving at a training base in Maryland.

He made three visits to Hawaii in the years after the war, including one very emotional trip back to Ford Island, where veterans like Mr. Regina were permitted to see the Utah where she lay, partially submerged.

“I saw the ship rusting away,” Mr. Regina recalled. “I went off by my side. I was thinking of all those men, of what they went through. It got me thinking how lucky I was.”

After the war, Mr. Regina went to work at the Edgar Thomson Steel Works as a machinist for 36 years.

In 1948, he married Grace McDonough, who died just four years later of breast cancer.

In 1971, he married Peggy Shriver, who died in 2016.

With no children, Mr. Regina decided to give his service medals to Dr. Minella, who took an interest in his military service.

“I think he sensed that I had a lot of respect for what he did,” said Dr. Minella, who became emotional at the memory. “We were very close. He would bring me the invitations he got every year for the survivors’ reunions.”

Dr. Minella has a display honoring Mr. Regina in his Shadyside office, including an American flag that was flown over the U.S. Capitol in his honor.

“It may not mean a lot to many people, but it did to me,” Dr. Minella said.

His experiences in the war altered Mr. Regina’s outlook on life, Dr. Minella said.

“It changed his mind about the military and war,” he said. “He wasn’t one of those gung-ho guys. He was very quiet about it. He didn’t say much.”

After he retired as a steelworker, Mr. Regina painted houses part time and volunteered at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, where he developed a passion for gardening.

“He was an avid gardener,” his niece said. “He had the best tomatoes. Some of them weighed a pound and a half.”

As a member of the Men’s Garden Club of Pittsburgh, Mr. Regina loved showing off his vegetables and his beloved chrysanthemums at garden shows, Ms. Bichsel said.

Dr. Minella said he would miss seeing Mr. Regina.

“It always brought a smile to my face when I saw him on the [patient] list for that day,” he said.

Ms. Bichsel said she was warmed when she found a handwritten entry in her uncle’s Bible this week that perfectly summed up the tenets he believed in.

“The best things to give: to a friend, loyalty; to an enemy, forgiveness; to your boss, service; to a child, good examples; to your father, respect; to your mother, gratitude and devotion; to your spouse, love and faithfulness; to all men, charity; and to God, your life.”

“And I think he tried to do all those things,” she said. “It fits him.”

In addition to his niece, Mr. Regina is survived by his brother, Albert Regina of North Huntingdon, and his sister, Annamae McDonald of Las Vegas. He was preceded in death by his brother, Joseph Regina, and his sisters, Rose Bichsel, Emma Wessel and Mary Denlinger.

Patrick T. Lanigan Funeral Home & Crematory Inc. in East Pittsburgh handled arrangements. Interment is in Monongahela Cemetery.