North County's last Pearl Harbor 'Survivor' marks 100th birthday
Pam Kragen Contact Reporter
Although 100 years of life may have weakened his body and hearing, Pearl Harbor veteran Joe Walsh said his memory is still razor-sharp about the two hours of terror and pure adrenaline he experienced the morning of Dec. 7, 1941.
“You don’t forget something like that,†Walsh said in an interview at his 100th birthday party on Sunday, the day before his actual centennial.
Walsh, then a Marine in the 3rd Defense Battalion, was at a color guard ceremony in the Navy Yard near the mouth of Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attack began. He and his fellow Marines manned three 50-inch anti-aircraft guns, trying to shoot down the invading planes before they could sink the American battleships near the harbor’s entrance.
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/communities/north-county/sd-no-pearl-harbor-20190319-story.html
