Gun 3 from USS Ward to move away from Capitol

By Tim Engstrom
The weapon that fired the first American shot in World War II will be hauled away in late summer or early fall and taken to the new Minnesota Military & Veterans Museum so it may be preserved.

ST. PAUL — The gun that fired the first American shot at an enemy in World War II is moving.

Many readers of the Legionnaire know the history the Ward gun: On the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, No. 3 Gun on the USS Ward fired on and sank a Japanese midget submarine attempting to infiltrate Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, marking the first shots fired by the United States in the war. It took place about 90 minutes prior to the Japanese air attack.

The USS Ward was a World War I-era destroyer that had been put into mothballs in 1921 and recommissioned in January 1941.

The 4-inch/50-caliber gun is on the grounds of the Minnesota Capitol Complex just east of the Veterans Service Building because it was manned by Naval Reservists from St. Paul. It sat mounted starboard amidships.

Minnesota Military & Veterans Museum Director Randal Dietrich said the museum plans to move it within the next 120 days, in late summer or early fall.

Someone call the National Guard! There is a submarine rising up out of the ground outside the new home of the Minnesota Military & Veterans Museum. Wait! It’s the sail of the USS Minneapolis-St. Paul.

“The museum is looking to provide a long-term home for it free from the elements,” he said.

The new home is going to be at the new Minnesota Military & Veterans Museum being constructed just east of Camp Ripley along Minnesota Highway 371, slated to open in 2026.

U.S. Navy History & Heritage Command owns the gun. In 1958, the Navy loaned it to the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs under an agreement that the state maintain it.

In January, Dietrich, Navy League of Minnesota President Joe Fraser and Navy veteran Brooks Berg went to Washington to meet with Navy officials about relocating the Ward gun.

“The Navy was suitably impressed with our plan” Dietrich said.

Back in Minnesota, museum officials were in touch with the Capitol Area Architectural & Planning Board, which maintains the monuments and memorials at the Capitol Complex. It had concerns about moving it out of St. Paul, considering its tie to the city. After a window for public input, the CAAPB green-lighted the removal. The need for maintenance and shelter mattered more.

The USS Ward Gun sits adjacent to the Veterans Service Building at the State Capitol Complex in St. Paul.

Veterans Affairs Commissioner Brad Lindsay signed off, letting the museum be the recipient of the gun, rather than the MDVA.

“In the museum, when folks walk into the gallery space, with displays from the Civil War to the Global War on Terrorism, the first thing they will see is that Ward gun,” Dietrich said.

The museum has contracted with St. Paul conservator Paul Storch, who will help restore the gun.

“It is being lost to time currently where it is,” Dietrich said “It really shouldn’t have been outdoors that long. We saved the gun as a result of this commitment to do the restoration work.”

 

USS Minneapolis-St. Paul

A submarine is rising out of the dirt on the grounds of the museum construction site. No, it’s not the Canadians with a below-ground spy machine. It’s the USS Minneapolis-St. Paul, a Los Angeles-class submarine commissioned in 1984 and decommissioned in 2008. It participated in the Persian Gulf War.

It served in the Atlantic, but after serving, it was sent to Puget Sound in Washinton state. Custody of the submarine’s sail and rudder were shipped to the museum. (Despite common parlance, upper part of a modern sub is not a conning tower. It’s called a sail in America and a fin in Great Britain.)

“We are saving a piece of naval history that was bound to be lost if we had not stepped in,” Dietrich said. “It is a huge undertaking. Now people drive by on the highway and can see a submarine coming out the prairie of Minnesota.”

 

USS Saint Paul

The USS Saint Paul Association has been fundraising to establish a commemorative memorial on the Capitol campus. The association’s vice president, John Franz, penned a letter to the editor that published in the May 2025 issue of The Minnesota Legionnaire, asking for charitable contributions, and that same letter went to American Legion posts across the metro.

Dietrich said the Minnesota Military & Veterans Museum has been in conversations with the association’s leadership about how the museum can perpetuate the stories of the heavy cruiser. The association is having its 2026 reunion in September in Arizona, and it plans to have its last one in 2027 in St. Paul, hopefully coinciding with the memorial coming into existence.

The ship was commissioned on Feb. 17, 1945, and christened by Mrs. Marie McDonough, the wife of the mayor of St. Paul. She participated in fighting in the Pacific Theater of World War II. She was in Tokyo Bay during the formal surrender on Sept. 2, 1945. She went on to fight in the Korean War and has much experience patrolling the risky Taiwan Strait.

The USS St. Paul starred in the John Wayne movie “In Harm’s Way” before returning to service to fight in the Vietnam War. She was decommissioned in 1971. Its bell is displayed on the third floor of St. Paul City Hall.

The USS Saint Paul Association is a 501c3 nonprofit organization and can accept charitable gambling donations. It has raised $30,487 so far. The goal is $250,000. To donate, mail a check to USS Saint Paul Association, PO Box 929, Greenville, OH 45331. Call Vice President John Franz with questions at 571-431-9450. Franz served a two-year tour on the St. Paul in Vietnam, before serving on land in Vietnam.