Remembering Pearl

Pearl Harbor survivor Edmund “Gene” McGuire, 82, says one of his biggest fears is that future generations of Americans will forget about him and other survivors of one of the most dramatic military defeats in American history.

Today, as the nation commemorates the 58th anniversary of Japan’s unprovoked attack, McGuire, who lives in Mission Viejo, wonders: Will the men who died in the opening minutes of World War II still be honored after they disappear?

“That morning, it seemed like the world was coming to an end,” said McGuire, the memories still all too vivid these many decades later.

Just as the Dec. 7, 1941, disaster forever changed the way the U.S. prepares for war, it is a badge of honor for men like McGuire.

Those select few U.S. servicemen who lived through the surprise attack that killed more than 2,400 formed the Pearl Harbor Survivors Assn., which has chapters throughout the country. They are the old men in Hawaiian shirts, white slacks and shoes seen at every veterans event.

“We didn’t want anybody to forget what happened that day,” said McGuire, a member of Pearl Harbor Survivors Assn. Chapter 14 based in Los Alamitos. “It seemed like nothing was going to stop the Japanese from overwhelming us.”

“Remember Pearl Harbor!” became a national rallying cry. At the end, the warning from Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto to his staff about the attack he’d planned--that Japan had awakened “a sleeping giant”--came true.

In the dark days at the beginning of the U.S. entry into World War II, the attack on Pearl Harbor stirred patriotism and a belief in America’s cause. This was true even in McGuire’s hometown of Greenup, Ky., population 1,000, where there were separate Methodist churches for families of Union Civil War veterans, including McGuire’s, and Confederate vets.

McGuire, who was a fire control man aboard the cruiser USS San Francisco, said this is the message he delivered recently to hundreds of south Orange County schoolkids, along with the warning that war is a terrible way for nations to settle disputes.

McGuire will be among several dozen veterans from all wars to commemorate the attack at Pearl Harbor at 11 a.m. today at El Toro Memorial Park, 25751 Trabuco Road, Lake Forest, one of many such events planned throughout Southern California and the nation.

At the time of the attack, McGuire was assigned to help direct the San Francisco’s 8-inch guns on enemy targets. But that day in 1941, the ship was unarmed and undergoing an overhaul across the channel from Ford Island, where U.S. battleships were anchored on Battleship Row.

“We were getting ready for the raising of the colors at 8 a.m., when somebody shouted ‘Air raid!,’ and general quarters was sounded. Some of the guys tried fighting back with .30-caliber machine guns, but it was futile,” McGuire said.

He said he scrambled to the USS New Orleans, a nearby cruiser, and helped train a 5-inch gun against incoming Japanese planes. The sailors managed to fire a few rounds, but hit nothing.

McGuire looked north, across the channel, and saw the battleship Arizona destroyed in a fiery explosion. About 1,100 of the 2,403 Americans killed in the attack perished on the Arizona, which sank. Eighteen U.S. ships were sunk or damaged, along with 200 aircraft destroyed or damaged, most of them on the ground.

McGuire said he could hear the moans of the wounded and dying around him, and curses of the men who flailed helplessly at the Japanese.

“I never thought that anything like that could ever happen to our country,” he said. “It was the most awful, frightening feeling I’ve ever had.”

But McGuire and the San Francisco, affectionately known as the Frisco by its crew, went on to exact their share of revenge. The San Francisco earned 17 battle stars in the war. Of all the Navy ships that engaged the enemy, only the carrier USS Enterprise, with 20, earned more battle stars.

The San Francisco was also one of a handful of ships that earned the Presidential Unit Citation. In an epic night battle on Nov. 13, 1942, against the Japanese fleet off Guadalcanal, the San Francisco and 12 other Navy ships attacked a stronger enemy force. The American sailors were outgunned, but not outfought, in the 24-minute fight.

“We lost 10 of our ships that night, but the Frisco alone sank a light cruiser with the first salvo,” McGuire recalled with evident pride. “We set another on fire, disabled a battleship that was sunk the next day by a submarine and sank a destroyer. We forced the Japanese to flee.”

During the battle, the San Francisco was hit by 45 enemy shells, which ignited 25 fires. That night McGuire earned a Silver Star for rescuing a badly wounded officer, even though his own clothes were on fire.

Last week, McGuire was among 16 veterans ranging from World War II to the Persian Gulf War who spoke about their experiences to 317 students from La Paz Intermediate School in Mission Viejo. Teacher Robert Bachle six years ago began the personal history project in which vets relate their war experiences.

“We use the veterans as primary sources for the kids,” Bachle said. “It’s important that the kids hear their stories, because it’s one thing to read about something in a history book and another to hear somebody who experienced that event tell you about his experience. The most accurate version of a historical event comes from somebody who was there. Plus, many WWII vets are dying off, and it’s important that students hear their stories.”

The speakers came from VFW Edward J. Kearns Post 6024 of Mission Viejo. Post spokesman Richard Latham said the Veterans of Foreign Wars’ national office encourages local posts to participate with schools in oral history programs.

For McGuire, there is one other veterans ceremony as important as Pearl Harbor Day. Each Memorial Day his shipmates gather at Land’s End in San Francisco to remember the men from the USS San Francisco killed in action. Their ranks grow thinner each year because many Pearl Harbor survivors already were in the military when the war began and are generally older than most World War II vets.

The city dedicated a small park there, anchored by the ship’s bridge salvaged from the scrap heap, to honor the man-of-war named after it.

“At one time, I knew the name of every man on the ship,” he said. “But I’ve forgotten many of them as I grew older. But what we did together as shipmates will never be forgotten. That’s why we gather there every year.”