Written by 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.
O my soul, you have said to the LORD, “You are my Lord, My goodness is nothing apart from You.”
Psalm 16:2
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