Allan Christie Edmands I

In the summer of 1941, Ace was stationed at Pearl Harbor, and Mary and Christine were moved to Honolulu to join him. As Ace was away on duty so much, Mary was happy to have her friend and sister-in-law Janie Doyle Hawes move in. Here is a picture of Mary, Janie, and Christine walking on the sidewalk in Honolulu (click the picture to enlarge it).

On December 7 of that year, while Ace was out at sea on the Astoria, Japanese bombers attacked. Mary, now three months pregnant with their second child (me), and Christine, just three and a half years old, were able to experience the "Day of Infamy" firsthand. In later years, Mary would often say that December 7 was the first day she felt her expected baby kick, and she would refer to the baby (who, she was sure, was male) as her "rising son," a pun on the Japanese Rising Sun naval battle flag.

According to a commemorative issue of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin (1),

The Christmas lights strung along Nuuanu Avenue, one of the main shopping districts, [had] all been torn down or turned off. The new bikes, wagons and dolls that would have been Christmas presents were still sitting on docks in San Francisco, shoved aside as the weapons and supplies of war were shipped to Honolulu. In San Francisco, the first shipload of evacuees from Hawaii landed on Christmas Day. Some of the women were new widows, others didn't know what happened to their husbands. Each morning on the ship, they rolled bandages and dressings for the gravely wounded from Pearl Harbor who were aboard. For most on Oahu, Christmas was a military-ordered work day. It was a time of deep worry and fear. No one wanted to be the target of another Japanese attack. . . . First at Nuuanu Cemetery and then at other sites, the military buried more than 2,500 young men killed in [the attack]. Local gardens gave up their red poinsettias and hibiscus for small bouquets on each grave. Even as they grieved, civilians feared another invasion by Japan; indeed, enemy submarines were sporadically shelling island ports and harbors. Within a month of the attack, 20,000 Army and Navy dependents and 10,000 island women and children left Hawaii, fearing for their safety. The Matson freighter Lahaina was set ablaze by a submarine on Dec. 11 and its lifeboat did not reach Maui until Dec. 21. Another Matson freighter, the Manini, had been sunk by a torpedo. By Christmas, all islanders over age 6 were being fingerprinted. As early as 1:30 p.m. Dec. 7-- a mere 5 1/2 hours after the attack-- printing presses had begun churning out military-issued civilian ID cards. It was a contingency the U.S. military had planned but feared: The cards were to be used to identify dead in case of another attack.

Americans in Hawaii expected the Japanese to land an occupying force on the islands any day. The word HAWAII in brown ink was printed on all the paper currency that banks on the islands issued; occupiers would not be able to spend American money.

Ace, newly promoted to Lieutenant, was now fully a warrior and deeply involved in the desperate preparations for the American military response to the attack. He had scant leave to be with his anxious family. His wife, daughter, and unborn baby, due to arrive on Ace's 31st birthday) were among the thousands of civilians waiting anxiously for shipment back to the mainland.

Finally, in April 1942--while Ace was sailing toward Australia--his family were on a ship to San Francisco. From there they went to Mary's parents' home, the chicken ranch on Waunch's Prairie, just north of Centralia, Washington. Meanwhile, Ace was participating in the Battle of the Coral Sea to protect the Australian shipping lanes. Just a few weeks later, Ace was flying missions from the Astoria in the Battle of Midway. His new son, named for him and nicknamed "Butch" rather than "Junior," was born in Centralia a couple of days after the successful end of this battle (and a day before Ace's birthday).

Ace's younger brother, John, was also at Midway, as a fresh Annapolis graduate aboard the U.S.S. Hughes. He later told the story of how Ace had signaled to him from his plane. Captain Ramsay, skipper of the Hughes, got excited and ordered John to decode the message. The skipper was upset when he learned the text of the message: "Regards to Ensign Edmands."

Ace continued missions from the Astoria during the Battle of Guadalcanal that summer until it was sunk off Savo Island; you can see his personal report of the battle. He was then ordered to Fleet Air Commander West Coast in San Diego and soon after to Alameda Escort Scouting Squadron 23 (in 1943 the name was changed to Composite Squadron 19).

Before reporting for this new assignment, however, Ace went up to Centralia on leave to retrieve his family and to move them down to San Diego. (The mashed-potato business probably occurred during a family dinner on the chicken ranch.)

In 1943, Ace was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and became skipper of Composite Squadron 60. He was ordered to the Eleventh Naval District, San Diego, and saw combat in the Battle of Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands, flying off the converted aircraft carrier U.S.S. Suwanee. Here is Ace's personal report of a "hunter-killer" operation. His family was living in Coronado and San Diego, California, while Ace was off to sea, incommunicado for months at a time. Whenever he was home, however, a lot of pictures were taken. Here are Ace and Mary in Coronado in May 1943 (click the picture to enlarge it).

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