Garvey John - San Francisco in World War II

The author would like to thank all the soldiers of the State Military Reserve (SMR) and the SMRs commanding general, Brig. Gen. Jack Hagan. Thanks also to the SMRs California Center for Military History (CCMH) personnel and to CCMH commander Col. Kenneth Nielsen, Lt. Col. Don Bradley (retired), Lt. Col. Ken Dombroski, Maj. Bob Barnes, Capt. Mike Fellows, CW2 Mark Denger, and Command Sgt. Maj. Daniel M. Sebby for their outstanding leadership. Special thanks to Brig. Gen. Bill Hamilton (retired CCMH commander) for instituting the CCMH publication series and to World War II veteran Brig. Gen. Don Mattson (retired) for his vision of creating a recognized State Military Museum, the California State Military Museum and Research Center, located in Sacramentos historic Old Town. Thanks to CW2 Bill Davies, U.S. Army (retired), the director of the World War II veterans oral history program at the California State Military Museum and Research Center; and to the museums director, CW4 Ernest McPherson.

Thank you to all the World War II veterans and those who shared their stories about Californias role in the war with me. A special thanks to the pilot of the Enola Gay , Col. Paul Tibbets, who dropped the Little Boy atomic bomb over Hiroshima and who was scheduled to drop a third atomic bomb brought to California over Japan after the second atomic drop of Fat Man, over Nagasaki. (The Fat Man drop, which caused the abrupt surrender, was made by Maj. Charles Sweeney, piloting the Bocks Car.) Brigadier General Tibbets (retired) stated he hoped that future conflict could be resolved around a conference table and not through warfare, which was the same sentiment of the other veterans interviewed.

Thank you to the staff of the San Francisco Public Library History Room, director Susan Goldstein, and especially photograph archivists Richard Marino and Pat Acker. Rob Wood at Hyper Gold and Peter Fairfield of Gamma labs are thanked for their photograph and computer expertise. Thanks also to Arcadia staff John Poultney, Jaquelin Pelzer, Christine Talbot, and Ryan Easterling.

Please note that any profit from this book after publication expenses, will be donated to the California State Military Museum and Research Center, which the CCMH supports for further collection of oral histories of World War II veterans for the California World War II veterans Military Educational Project, now used in California high schools to educate our youth about this period in American history.

CW2 John Garvey, Historian/Writer
State Military Reserve, California Center for Military History
San Francisco detachment

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anonymous. One Ship: USS San Francisco CA-38, The Crews cruise book . Crocker Union Lithography Company, 1945.

Bonnett, Wayne . Build Ships! Wartime Shipbuilding Photographs: San Francisco Bay 19401945 . Windgate Press, 1999.

Chin, Brian B. Artillery at the Golden Gate: The Harbor Defenses of San Francisco in World War II . Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, 1994.

Frisco CA 38 newsletters, c. 1970s to present.

Hansen, Chuck. USS San Francisco: A Technical History . Self-published, 1981.

Holbrook, Heber. The History of the USS San Francisco in World War II . Pacific Monographs, 1978.

Grace, James W. The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, Night Action, 13 November 1942 . Naval Institute Press, 1999.

Hamilton, Capt. James and 1Lt. William J. Bolce Jr. Gateway to Victory . Stanford University Press, 1946.

Lotchin, Roger W. The Bad City in the Good War: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, and San Diego. Indiana University Press, 2003.

Lott, Arnold S. A Long Line of Ships Mare Islands Century of Naval Activity in California . United State Naval Institute, 1954.

Maloney, Peter. Diary of Happenings of World War II . Personal diary by San Francisco Police Department bodyguard to San Francisco Mayor Angelo J. Rossi during World War II. Unpublished and given to author by Mrs. Ginny Maloney.

Martin, John A. Fortress Alcatraz Guardian of the Golden Gate . Pacific Monograph, 1990 and 2004.

Martini, John A. Alcatraz at War . San Francisco: Golden Gate National Parks Association, 2002.

Murphy, Father Francis X. Fighting Admiral The Story of Dan Callaghan . Vantage Books, 1952.

Nelson, Kevin. The Golden Game: The Story of California Baseball . Heyday Books, California Historical Society.

Soennichsen, John. Miwoks to Missiles: A History of Angel Island . Angel Island Association, 2001.

Wiper, Steve. USS San Francisco CA-38 Warship Pictorial #5 . Classic Warship Publishing, 1999.

To participate in the California World War II Veteran Oral History Project, please e-mail John Garvey at discusthrower@comcast.net.

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One

PREWAR: SAN FRANCISCO PREPARES

Baseball great Joe DiMaggio is pictured with his parents in February 1936. In March 1942, the San Francisco News reported that DiMaggios elderly parents, who were of Italian ancestry, mightbe evacuated from San Francisco as enemy aliens. In February of the following year, DiMaggiogave up his $43,500 Yankees salary and prepared to receive the $50 per month salary for enlistedmen in the U.S. Army. DiMaggio was sworn in on February 17 by Capt. M. A. Branson in SanFrancisco, after passing his physical examination. The baseball star obtained permission fromhis draft board to enlist as a voluntary inductee. (Courtesy San Francisco History Center, SanFrancisco Public Library.)

At the time Joe DiMaggio was leaving the San Francisco Seals to play for the New York Yankees,Jolting Joe made the visit pictured here to the USS San Francisco prior to the commencementof World War II. This monarch of the sea, which would be known as the Fighting Frisco, or theFrisco Maru to the Japanese, eventually earned 17 battle stars. (Courtesy USS San Francisco veteran Arthur McArdle.)

Led by the flagship the USS Pennsylvania , sister ship to the USS Arizona , the U.S. Navys fightingships passed for the first time under the lofty arches of the new San FranciscoOakland Bay Bridge.This flotilla of battleships included dreadnoughts, airplane carriers, and destroyers. (CourtesySan Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.)

This certificate, dated May 14,1939, was given to Machinist Mate2nd Class Earl Warden, a sailoron the USS San Francisco duringits famed prewar South Americancruise. Warden would later becredited with steering the heavycruiser away from Savo Islandin 1942 and saving the crew of1,100 men. The cruiser went toPanama; Callao (near Lima), Peru;Valparaiso, Chile; Buenos Aires,Argentina; Montevideo, Uruguay;Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; La Guaira,Venezuela; and Guantanamo Bay,Cuba. (Courtesy author.)