This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Paul Steelhammer, MM2
to remember
Dolan, Owen, BMC USN(Ret).
If you knew or served with this Sailor and have additional information or photos to support this Page, please leave a message for the Page Administrator(s) HERE.
Ward was named in honor of Commander James Harmon Ward, USN, (1806–1861), the first U.S. Navy officer to be killed in action during the American Civil War. Ward was built at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California in a record of 17½ days. Under the pressure of urgent World War I needs for destroyers, her construction was pushed rapidly from keel-laying on 15 May 1918 to launching on 1 June and commissioning on 24 July 1918.
Other Memories - Owen enlisted in the Naval Reserve in St.Paul on November 29, 1940. He was a member of the 47th Reserve Division in St Paul and attended training meetings every Monday night in December, 1940 and January 1941. - The 47th Division was activated on January 21, 1941, and shipped out of St.Paul by train January 23, 1941, in -20 degree weather. They arrived in San Diego on January 28 and reported for duty on the WARD on Jan. 29. The 47th Division men would be the core of WARD's first crew in 1941. The crew assisted work men in cleaning up 19 years of rust and dirt that WARD accumulated while in the Reserve Fleet. - WARD left California on Feb. 28, 1941, and reached Pearl Harbor on March 9, passing through a storm that almost sank the ship. - Dolan was on the ship during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He continued on the WARD in 1942 when WARD was stationed at Pearl Harbor, again on guard duty and escort duty. He was promoted to Coxwain on September 1, 1942, and left WARD for good on Sept. 23, 1942 while it was in Pearl Harbor. He was ordered to report to the west coast for reassignment to a base or another ship.
Thank You Dick Klobuchar for providing this look into Owen Dolans early service while aboard the USS WARD.
links for USS WARD http://www.destroyerhistory.org/flushdeck/ussward.html http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-w/dd139.htm http://hometown.aol.com/warddd139/index.html http://www.specwarnet.net/USSWard/
