Attack on Pearl Harbor felt in Shelton

The Shelton-Mason County Journal of Dec. 4, 1941, was focused on the upcoming Christmas holiday. The front page included a schedule of where and when Santa Claus would be appearing, and shoppers were encouraged to "shop early and shop in your hometown." The Shelton Garden Club announced details of its annual outdoor Christmas home illumination contest, and a two-day open house, including a dedication ceremony, was being planned for the newly completed Shelton gymnasium.

Three days later, everything changed. In her memoirs about growing up in Shelton, Margaret Lentz remembered that "on December 7, I don't know who I was with, but we were walking all around town, and all of the restaurants, anything that was open, had their radios on, and all the radios were saying 'All men from Third Division report back to Fort Lewis immediately.' I'll never forget that as long as I live because it was so amazing - it was coming at you wherever you walked."

The Journal headline on Dec. 9 read, "Many Sheltonians in War Zone; Relatives Anxiously Wait Word." Several Mason County men were on U. S. Navy ships that had reportedly been sunk in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor or were stationed on the island of Oahu or in Manila.

On the home front, Shelton "went through the eerie experience of disappearing" in a short-notice blackout drill ordered by the Second Interceptor Command. Residents "performed with patriotic enthusiasm in dousing lights by the appointed eleven o'clock deadline and achieved a 100 percent blackout in the business and residential districts. The Rayonier mill did a particularly effective job of darkening hundreds of lighted windows, using black paint on most of them and paper and blankets on others with the result that the big industrial plant practically disappeared from sight beyond a couple of blocks distance."

Guards were placed at all industrial plants, and at water and power systems, as precautions against sabotage. Highway bridges were being guarded by the state highway department, and city bridges by members of the city street department. The Aircraft Warning Service went on active duty, with Chief Observer Maurice Needham working out a 24-hour schedule for his staff and volunteers.

State Patrolman Cliff Aden warned all motorists to give the right of way to Army vehicles. Two accidents had already occurred due to civilian motorists refusing to yield to Army trucks. One of them, a munitions truck, was demolished and, according to Aden, "It was a miracle that the munitions did not explode and kill everyone within a hundred yards."

On Dec. 11, the front page included a black-bordered announcement of "Your Air-Raid Warning Signal System." One long blast would be given five minutes before the actual warning, which would be two short blasts repeated five times at one-minute intervals. The all-clear signal was one short and one long blast.

Instructions printed on the front page of the Dec. 16 Journal included what to do during a blackout (including "Don't use the telephone except in emergency, then only briefly"); what to do if we are bombed (stay cool, lay flat on the floor or ground, aid your neighbor, keep away from glass, stay off streets, don't form crowds); and what to do if fires start (including have a garden hose, pair of gloves, shovel, hand spray gun, and pair of dark glasses always handy in your home, and don't throw large quantities of water on incendiary bombs).

Mason County merchant sailor Lester Vallet was one of the seaman rescued when the new freighter Oregon was rammed and sunk by a U.S. Navy ship running without lights 20 miles south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Closer to home, machine gun bullets fired from an Army scouting plane came within 4 feet of a boat carrying two men fishing for dogfish on Oyster Bay. The fisherman "put to shore as quickly as they could and were rushed to the Sheriff's Office in Shelton." Officials at Fort Lewis were notified and the aviators were identified and "would be dealt with immediately."

On Dec. 14, the Journal printed a letter from Lt. Col. George Bloomquist, commanding officer of the 163rd Infantry (Rifle), to Shelton Mayor William Stevenson expressing the appreciation of the officers and men of his command for the splendid treatment and cooperation given them on their recent bivouac in the Shelton area. "It is especially desirable to commend those who make up the Civil Defense Units and the manner in which the county and city coordinators have developed their organizations to include Red Cross, fraternal organizations, school district, city and county police and individual citizens."

Late in the month, Mr. and Mrs. O. M. Steen of Shelton received word that their son, Elwood, who had been stationed aboard the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, had been transferred off the ship and on the day of the attack was disembarking at San Francisco. Mr. and Mrs. Carl Rains also received news that their sons Carl and Bob, serving aboard the USS Pennsylvania, had survived the attack.

By the first of January 1942, the Journal had settled into a new normal. There were four front-page stories about local civil defense efforts, but the rest was more normal news, such as the gifts that would be awarded to the first baby born in 1942, the record number of fish and bird plantings in Mason County waters and woods, and the razing of the old Currie home at First and Railroad preparatory to the building of a Safeway grocery store.

■ Jan Parker is a researcher for the Mason County Historical Museum. She can be reached at [email protected]. Membership in the Mason County Historical Society is $25 per year. For a limited time, new members will receive a free copy of the book "Shelton, the First Century Plus Ten."