Ramsey County History – Winter 1991: “St. Paul’s First Shot Veterans: The Crew of the U.S.S. Ward and the Attack on Pearl Harbor”

St. Paul’s First Shot Veterans: The Crew of the U.S.S. Ward and the Attack on Pearl Harbor

Author: Jane McClure

The U.S.S. Ward, a destroyer, served in combat for precisely three years, December 7, 1941 to December 6, 1944. Manned by naval reservists from St. Paul, the Ward saw combat at Pearl Harbor (“We thought it was the end of the world.”), Guadalcanal, and the Philippines, losing only one crewman along the way. Disabled by a kamikaze attack, the ship had to be scuttled in the Pacific. Crewmen from the Ward fired the first shots in the war with Japan, sinking a mini-submarine an hour before the air attack on December 7. After the war, most of the St. Paul crewmen returned home to long and productive lives.

PDF of McClure article