Memorial Day ceremony at USS San Francisco Memorial honors those who died in Battle of Guadalcanal
Monday is Memorial Day, but one tradition always happens on the Sunday before.
In 1942, the USS San Francisco miraculously survived a pivotal battle in World War II and each year a memorial service is held to honor those who died. But this year, there was a special guest who added his own footnote to history.
Each year, the ceremony remains the same. The same parade of colors. The same memorial bell is ringing for those lost on the USS San Francisco. And each year, a reminder of how ferocious the fighting was at the Battle of Guadalcanal on Nov. 12 and 13, 1942.
"Ships maneuvered at close range in the darkness. What followed was a point-blank naval gunfight," said US Marine Corps historian, Master Gunnery Sgt. Jonathan Banks. "Japanese search lights suddenly illuminated American ships. And within moments, the night exploded with gunfire."
The heavy cruiser USS San Francisco was in the middle of the fight, hit by more than two dozen shells. Most of the command staff was killed, including the task force commander, San Francisco native Admiral Daniel Callahan. Preserved at the memorial is the actual ship's bridge railing, holes punched through it by the onslaught of shells. For most, it's a piece of history, but for one person in the audience, it was a memory.
"A lot of times, they don't tell the true story. I'm telling you the true story," said Tom McGarvey. "I was there. You know what I mean? They know me now."
A lot of people know "Red" McGarvey as the guy who opened up Red's Java House, the iconic little cafe on the Embarcadero near Oracle Park. But what people didn't know was that on that horrific night and morning, Red was a 16-year-old kid aboard a Merchant Marine ship hauling supplies in the middle of the fight. He remembers another merchant freighter next to his that was hit and went down in about 20 minutes.
"A thousand people were on that ship that got a direct hit," he said. "I was about 300 yards away from that ship."
In spite of that, Red said he doesn't remember being scared at the time.
"When you're 16 years old, you don't give a damn. Nothing bothers you. You're just running around. It's just like a movie, or something like that," he said.
And though he's 99 years old now, Red said the memories of that day are still vivid in his mind.
"Certain things you remember. When you see people getting killed and stuff like that, you're going to remember it, no matter how stupid you are. You know, you got to wake up sooner or later," he said. "Yeah, what the hell are you doing here, know what I mean?"
John McKnight, President of the USS San Francisco Memorial Foundation, has been organizing the memorial about the Guadalcanal battle for years. But all this time, he never knew there was a survivor of it living in the city.
"No," he said. "I learned this last year when I got a phone call at my office, and the next thing I knew, I'm spending an hour getting stories that I just didn't think I was ever going to hear again."
McKnight said that's the thing about WWII. So few people would talk about their experiences after the war that, 80 years later, we are just now learning new stories about what happened. And at the end of the event, they displayed an original banner from the ship's commissioning ceremony in 1931. It's nearly 100 years old, but it, too, was just recently discovered.
"And that is the very meaning of Memorial Day weekend," said McKnight. "We are here to remember. We want these stories to remain, the courage and the sacrifice that was alive at the time. We want people to remember it."