The Shot Heard Round The World
By Mitch Berg
Today is the 69th anniversary of Pearl Harbor.
Sixty-nine years after Japanese planes bombed Pearl Harbor, survivors of the attack are due to gather at the base to remember those killed.
Some 100 survivors, the youngest of whom are in their late 80s, have traveled from around the country to attend Tuesday’s ceremony.
Minnesota is also holding a ceremony, at the Veterans building at the foot of the Capitol Mall. It’s a little-known fact even in Minnesota that the very first shots fired at Pearl Harbor – hours before the air raid – were fired by a Navy Reserve gun crew from Saint Paul, serving aboard the rehabbed World War I-era destroyer USS Ward, on anti-sub patrol outside the Harbor.
The Saint Paul gun crew that fired the first shots at a Japanese midget sub. The gun in the photo is on permanent display north of the Veterans Building in Saint Paul.
George Thill – one of the survivors of that gun crew – will speak at the ceremony today.
Wish I could be there.
December 7th, 2010 at 12:46 pm
The ship’s bell is on the second floor of the St. Paul City Courthouse, just near the elevators, along with a nice brass sign. I couldn’t resist clicking it with my finger – yep, nice tone, too.
December 7th, 2010 at 1:52 pm
I had read that the ship met it’s end supporting the re-occupation of the Phillipines. This irony of this tid bit really struck me:
On the morning of 7 December 1944, three years to the day after her Number Three Gun fired the opening shot of the War, she was patrolling off the invasion area when she came under attack by several Japanese aircraft. One bomber made a suicide crash into her hull amidships, bringing the ship to a stop. When the resulting fires could not be controlled, Ward’s crew was ordered to abandon ship and she was sunk by gunfire from USS O’Brien (DD-725), whose Commanding Officer, William W. Outerbridge, had been in command of Ward during her action off Pearl Harbor three years before.
December 7th, 2010 at 1:53 pm
I’ve lived in Hawaii for over 20 years and I’ve never been to the monument. I don’t get to Oahu much.
I’ve been to Kawaihae Harbor on the Big Island many times, though. On Dec. 7, 1941, a Jap mini-sub popped up and blew up a diesel storage tank there.
After WW2 the Army Corp of Engineers used a lot of HE to blow up the coastline. It was an experiment to see if they could use A-bombs to make harbors. They thought big back then.
December 7th, 2010 at 2:47 pm
For anyone interested I found a really-really cool site that tells much of the history of the Ward, and there was a lot of history to tell.
http://www.specwarnet.net/USSWard/history.htm