“A date that will live in infamy” — President Franklin Roosevelt
Kenneth Fielding, a native of Quincy, was on the deck of the USS Selfridge, a United States Navy destroyer attached to five other destroyers at Naval Station Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941. Fielding was there stationed for nearly a year as Storekeeper First Class, who also piloted the four-barreled 1.1-inch/75-millimeter anti-aircraft guns during combat. Less than 24 hours earlier, the Selfridge had returned to Pearl Harbor after a routine operation. At 07:51, a few minutes before the morning colours, a Japanese aircraft launched a torpedo against the USS Raleigh, a light cruiser anchored nearby. The attack began the concerted two-hour Japanese torpedo and bombardment raid that forever changed world history. Fielding was 19 years and seven months to the day.
A few minutes after the headquarters alarm sounded by the deck officer of the Selfridge, Fielding took up his combat position and began firing at the incoming Japanese planes. In his report, Captain Wyatt Craig noted that his ship’s guns were the first to be fired from ships moored in the harbor. An enemy Fielding plane fired at it crashed and another was catapulted halfway up a hill inland.
In a 2009 interview with this author for the Veterans History Project, Fielding reflected. “Before the Japanese attack, the captain had told us that there would be no more exercises for a while, so most of the men did not feel anything brewing. At first, we thought it was an Air Corps flyover, and even after the bombing began, we weren’t sure who was attacking us.
This surprise bombardment devastated the fleet of ships, aircraft, and amphibious equipment and inflicted over 3,500 casualties, including 2,403 U.S. military personnel killed. The next day, the United States declares war on Japan and enters World War II.
The Navy ordered the Selfridge to patrol the entrance to the harbor and a few weeks later ordered her to sail to Wake Island. The ship only reached the Prime Meridian when Wake fell to the Japanese. The carrier next to the Selfridge was hit by a massive torpedo and the whole scene caught fire.
After escorting the damaged aircraft carrier to Seattle, Washington, the Selfridge led four US Marine ships to New Zealand and then picked them up before sailing to Guadalcanal. Fielding chronicled the events that followed. “We were the last ship in our squadron and close to the edge of the Coral Sea when 40 Bettys [Japanese bombers] came upon us. We lost the Lexington, America’s oldest World War II aircraft carrier, and five cruisers, and the USS Chicago caught a torpedo that knocked out her bow. An overturned merchant ship.
“Shortly after this battle, the Selfridge patrolled near Vale in the northernmost Solomon Islands. It was October 6, 1943. Suddenly we engaged the Japanese in combat. the middle of our squadron was torpedoed and the ship behind slammed into her deck. The Japs directly hit our ship and it exploded in a ball of fire. After running out of ammo and torpedoes, we started using powder without flash, then fired smokeless powder. Fifty-six of our men died that day and 15 or 16 were seriously wounded. One of our men went too far that night, and the next day, a PBY [patrol boat] rescued him amid several hundred Japanese bodies floating in the water.
Many more battles and naval operations followed for the fieldmaster aboard the USS Selfridge before World War II ended in the Pacific theater on August 15, 1945. This ceasefire occurred after that another Quincy man, Air Force Colonel Paul Tibbetts, dropped atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in Japan from a plane named after his mother, Enola Gay.
The Army decorated Fielding for his service in World War II, but when asked about his courage and heroism in battle, he replied, “They are exaggerated. We had a job to do and we did it. We did our duty the way we were taught to react. We’ve been called the “greatest generation,” but my dad raised three boys alone in the 1930s and never knew what he was going to put on the table for the next meal. World War II removed tyranny from our shores and made the world a safer and better place, allowed us to prosper. War has taught us that freedom has a price and that veterans pay for it.
Kenneth “Speedy” Fielding was born May 7, 1922 in Quincy, the son of Clarence and Ethel Fielding. After attending the city’s public schools, he entered the Navy and received basic training at Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago. He served six years in the Navy before being honorably discharged and returning to the United States. His military service taught him valuable lessons about life and the discipline and hard work it entailed continued to guide his civilian career.
After leaving the Navy, he worked for three years in California at a military shipyard before returning to Quincy. On April 20, 1948, he married Mary Celeste Taylor and began a 33-year tenure with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, rising from painter to lockmaster at Saverton, Missouri’s Lock and Dam 22. The Corps also posted him to Lock and Dams 14, 17, 18 and 20.
Kenneth Fielding died at the age of 92 on February 20, 2015, a resident of the Illinois Veterans Home in Quincy, where – among some of the remaining World War II veterans – he spent his final days. The US Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that only about 1% of the 16.1 million World War II servicemen are alive today. A model of the USS Selfridge rested on Fielding’s mantle in Quincy, a poignant reminder of his service to our country. At his side was draped the American flag that flew from his ship’s yardarm on that fateful December day 80 years ago.
“Reflections of the Atomic Bomb Crew on the First Drop.” Quincy Herald-Whig, August 8, 1954, p. 31.
“Congress declares war: Honolulu’s loss is 3,000.” Quincy Herald-Whig, December 8, 1941, 1.
Fielding, Kenneth. Interview with Joseph Newkirk for the Veterans’ History Project, November 2009.
Prange, Gordon W. Pearl Harbor: The Verdict of History. New York: McGraw-Hill, Co., 1986.
Toland, John. Infamy: Pearl Harbor and its aftermath. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1982.
Joseph Newkirk is a local writer and photographer whose work has been widely published as a contributor to literary magazines, as a correspondent for the Catholic Times and, for the past 23 years, as a writer for the Veterans History from the Library of Congress. He is a member of the reorganized Quincy Bicycle Club and has cycled over 10,000 miles in his lifetime.
The Quincy and Adams County Historical Society preserves Governor John Wood’s mansion, the history museum on the plaza, the 1835 log cabin, livery, Lincoln Gallery exhibits and an artifact collection and documents that tell the story of who we are. This award-winning column is written by members of the Society. For more information, visit hsqac.org or email info@hsqac.org.