WALSH-JOSEPH

PEARL  HARBOR  SURVIVOR

Joseph “Joe” Walsh was reportedly born on March 18, 1919 in East Orange, New Jersey.  He was raised by his single mother after his father abandoned the family when Joe was only 5.  In 1938, during the Great Depression and jobs were scarce, he joined the Marine Corps for the steady income it would provide.  Although he earned only $19 a week in the Marines, he reportedly sent $10 of his pay home to his mother.

On December 7, 1941, Walsh was a Marine assigned to the 3^rd Defense Battalion at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attack began.  Walsh was a member of a color guard ceremony in the Navy Yard near the mouth of Pearl Harbor and with fellow Marines manned three 50-inch anti-aircraft guns, trying to shoot down the invading planes as they attacked the fleet.  Concerning this morning Walsh said, “I didn’t have time to get scared.  You don’t think about it.  You did what you were told to do.  You manned your gun and tried to get anyone you could.”

A few weeks after the Pearl Harbor attack Walsh was shipped to desolate Johnston Atoll in the South Pacific to build air defenses.  Then, after a brief stint in Navy flight school, he spent the rest of World War II with Marine Observation Squadron Eight.  After nine years in the Marines he was released from active duty with the rank of Gunnery Sergeant.  During the Korean War he was recalled to active duty and served as a drill sergeant major at the Marine Corps Air Station, El Toro, California.

While on active duty, Walsh married “LaVonne “Bea” Walsh who was also a Marine then serving at Aviation Women’s Reserve Squadron 21 in Quantico, Virginia.  Following his service, Walsh seldom talked about his duties in the Marine Corp according to his family until the mid 1980s when he realized the younger generation was learning little about Pearl Harbor.  Walsh then joined with several other Pearl Harbor survivors to form the San Diego North County chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association which at its peak had 130 members.  In 2006, Walsh and another Pearl Harbor survivor successfully campaigned to have a Pearl Harbor memorial monument installed in the harbor of Oceanside, California.  During the campaign Walsh said, “The guys who were over there who didn’t make it back deserved to be remembered.  We didn’t want to forget any of them.” 

GYSGT Joe Walsh died in Vista, California, at the age of 100 on December 21, 2019 and was the last surviving member of the San Diego North County chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association.  He served in various capacities for the Association, including Chapter President, and was well known for attending every December 7^th annual gathering of the Association in Oceanside including their meeting in 2019 only two weeks prior to his death.

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)