100 Year-Old Pearl Harbor Survivor Joe Walsh Dies

From the Dec. 30, 2019, Los Angeles Times by Pam Kragen.

Back in 1987, Joe Walsh co-founded the north San Diego chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association and was the last surviving active member  of the Chapter 31, which at its peak in the 1990s had 130 members.  As the long-serving president of the organization,  he organized Pearl Harbor Memorial services each December 7 at Oceanside Harbor.

He died Dec. 21, 2019, after a brief illness.

Mr. Walsh was a Marine  in the 3rd Defense Battalion and at a color guard ceremony at the Navy Yard when the planes attacked.  He and fellow Marines manned three anti-aircraft guns and battled the Japanese.

A few weeks later, he was transferred to the desolate Johnston Atoll in the South Pacific to build air defenses.  Then there was brief stint at the U.S. Navy flight school and the rest of the war with the Marine Corps VMO-8 observation squadron.

Serving nine years in the Corps, he retired with the rank of gunnery sergeant and was called back to service in the Korean War.

He married LaVonne "Bea" Phaneuf in 1946.  She had been in the Aviation Women's Reserve Squadron 21 at Brown Field in Quantico, Virginia, but they didn't meet until after the war.

--GreGen