The massive deck gun that St. Paulites aboard the destroyer USS Ward used to fire the first American salvo of World War II was removed Tuesday from its longtime home on the State Capitol mall in their hometown.
The gun will go to the Minnesota Military & Veterans Museum at Camp Ripley in Little Falls, where it will be painstakingly restored and displayed in a new 20,000-square-foot facility that is expected to open next fall, said Randal Dietrich, the museum’s executive director.
Loaned to the state of Minnesota by the U.S. Navy in 1958, the gun has begun to show its age in recent years. State officials opted to transfer the 11,000-pound piece of ordnance to the museum after a monthslong review process, which included a public comment period that found broad public support for the move.
That process culminated Tuesday morning — the 80th anniversary of the official end of WWII — in a removal ceremony that involved family members of Ward sailors.
Naval reservists from St. Paul were manning the gun on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, when the crew of the Ward spotted a Japanese mini-submarine outside Pearl Harbor. They fired a shot through the sub’s conning tower, sinking the vessel.
Just an hour later, Japanese war planes attacked the naval base at Pearl, drawing the U.S. into the war.
Since it was installed outside the Capitol, the gun has served as the backdrop for countless reunions of World War II veterans, Pearl Harbor Day commemorations and other events.
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