Meno, Vicente Gogue, Matt2c

Mess Attendant/2c Vicente Meno was Killed in Action on December 7, 1941, during the attack on Pearl Harbor.  He was stationed aboard the USS Arizona BB39.

Vicente Gogue Meno was born in about 1921 in Guam. His parents, Maria Gogue and Quintin Delgado Meno, had three sons and one daughter. Vicente was the oldest child.

His father, Quintin, served 32 years in the US Navy.  After Spain’s defeat in 1898 in the Spanish-American war, Guam was put under Navy control and many local men went to work for the Navy. Quinton enlisted during WWI when the Navy was integrated. After the war the Navy was segregated, but Quinton was “grandfathered in” and allowed to keep his rank of Seaman 1st class.

When the Navy again opened enlistments in the early 1930s, African-American, Chammoro and Filipino sailors were accepted only into the messman branch. They cooked, cleaned and performed other service jobs. Vicente followed his father into service, enlisting on October 2, 1939. But at that point, of course, he could only be a messman.

Mess Attendant 2nd Class Vicente Meno died aboard the USS Arizona when it was attacked at Pearl Harbor. He was one of seven Guamanian messmen killed on the Arizona.

At the onset of the December 7, 1941 attack, the battleship USS Arizona (BB-39) was moored at berth Fox 7 on “Battleship Row.” The repair ship Vestal (AR-4) was on the port side; and the starboard side faced the northeastern shore of Ford Island. Just before 8 am, the ship’s air raid alarm sounded and the crew was ordered to general quarters. During the attack the battleship was struck by as many as eight aerial bombs, including one 1,700 lb. armor-piercing shell which penetrated the deck near the Number 2 turret and detonated in the smokeless powder magazine, causing a “cataclysmic” explosion “which destroyed the ship forward” and ignited a fire which burned for two days. Most of the Arizona crewmen who perished in the attack died instantly during the explosion. The ship quickly sank to the bottom of the harbor along with 1,177 of the 1,512 personnel on board, representing about half the total number of Americans killed that day.

MATT2c Vicente Gogue Meno (Serial Number 4210515) is entombed in the Hull of the USS Arizona.

His father served on the USS Gold Star, which carried cargo throughout the war to Australia, New Guinea and the Admiralty Islands. 

Japan invaded Guam on Dec. 10, 1941, and imposed brutal control over the island that lasted until June 1944.  Thousands died in concentration camps and in forced labor. Vicente’s teenage brother Tomas worked with the American underground during the war. In 1948 Tomas enlisted in the US Corp of Engineers and served in Korea and Vietnam.

This information was researched and written on behalf of the USS Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.

Sources: the Pacific Daily News of Guam; Navalhistory.org; Census; Navy muster rolls; Army service record; Brooklyn Eagle. All of the information about the Gold Star is from an excellent piece written in 1973 by J.U. Lademan Jr. and published by  the United State Naval Institute. Capt. Lademan was commanding officer of the Gold Star starting in July 1941.