1 of 8 | A preserved 50-caliber gun from the USS Ward, which fired the first U.S. shots during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, has been displayed on the grounds of the Minnesota State Capitol since 1958. Now, it could be finding a home at a new military and veterans museum under construction in the state. Photo courtesy of the state of Minnesota

The U.S. Navy agreed to put it there at the request of state veterans officials, who cited that the Ward being manned by a Minnesota crew of reservists was a key moment in the state’s military history.

The crew of Ward have been credited with firing the first two shots in the Pacific theater of World War II — their first shot from the destroyer’s No. 1 gun that Sunday morning missed the Japanese sub, while the second round from Gun #3 found its mark.

The leaders of an extensive new military museum now under construction in Little Falls, Minn., about 110 miles northwest of the Twin Cities near the Minnesota National Guard’s Camp Ripley, say the gun’s illustrious place in U.S. history deserves better treatment than the elements are giving it.

The gun, along with the USS Ward, was built in 1918 for use in World War I.

The nonprofit Minnesota Military & Veterans Museum is seeking to move the gun indoors to an honored spot as one of the main attractions at the upcoming 40,000-square-foot facility, a process that began in earnest this month with the first hearing before the board that oversees the state Capitol’s operations and architecture.

The USS Ward’s place in history

The Ward and its crew hold an honor that no other ship can match, coming at the dawn of World War II.

According to the Naval History and Heritage Command, which still owns the gun artifact, the USS Ward (DD-139), a Wickes-class destroyer, was quickly built at Mare Island Navy Yard in California for service in World War I. It was named in honor of Cmdr. James Harmon Ward, the first Navy officer killed in the U.S. Civil War.

After her service against German U-boat forces in the Atlantic, she was used to support the first trans-Atlantic flight of the NC flying boats in May 1919, marking a milestone in aviation history that brought great acclaim to naval aviation.

Decommissioned in 1921, the Ward was recommissioned after 20 years following the outbreak of World War II and was sent to Pearl Harbor in 1941.

On Dec. 7, she was patrolling off the entrance to the harbor when she encountered, attacked and sank a Japanese midget submarine — acknowledged by the Navy as the first shots of the war in the Pacific.

They came only a short time before Japanese carrier aircraft formally opened the conflict with their attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet inside the harbor.

In February 1943, the Ward was converted to a high-speed transport and was enlisted for war service again in the Pacific. During the landings at Ormoc Bay in the Philippines on Dec. 7, 1944, Japanese aircraft, along with a suicide bomber, attacked the Ward, damaging her to the point of the crew abandoning ship as fires raged.

She was then sunk by gunfire by the USS O’Brien, captained by Cmdr. William Outerbridge, who ironically had commanded the Ward during the Pearl Harbor attack three years earlier. The sinking was conducted to prevent the ship into falling into enemy hands.

The Ward’s No. 3 gun, however, was salvaged by Naval officials who recognized its significance. The artifact was put on loan by the Naval History and Heritage Command to the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs in 1958 to occupy a place of honor as a memorial on the grounds of the state Capitol.

In the decades since, the Ward Gun Memorial has been a place of gathering and remembrance for its Minnesota crew and others to mark the sacrifices made by the United States on Dec. 7, 1941.

Its location outside the Veterans Affairs office adjacent to the Capitol made it a convenient and fitting place to remember the Pearl Harbor attack, in which more than 2,400 Americans were killed.

Deteriorating condition raises alarms

As the years passed, however, it became apparent that its exposure to the elements — particularly Minnesota’s cold and snowy winters — was taking its toll on the gun. The memorial services also began to thin out as the last surviving member of the Pearl Harbor crew, Alan Sanford, died in 2015.

Experts said the time the gun spent underwater in the Philippines before it was salvaged made it susceptible to corrosion.

Constructed of steel with brass components and covered in gray enamel paint, attempts by state officials to keep the metal from rusting over the years have met with only mixed results — the interior of the barrel has been coated with a thin layer of stable corrosion and birds have built their nests inside of it, according to the Minnesota Historical Society.

“At its current site, the gun is exposed to the elements and will continue to degrade,” wrote William James III, president of the Minnesota Navy League Council.

The idea to move the gun to a new location began five years ago as part of a larger effort to construct a new state military and veterans museum to replace the current cramped and insufficient facility, which has been situated inside Camp Ripley since the 1970s.

The push to finance the Minnesota Military & Veterans Museum finally bore fruit this year, when the state Legislature provided $32 million to design and construct the 40,000-square-foot facility.

Its director, Randal Dietrich, says he is halfway to his goal of raising another $10 million from private donors to flesh out its galleries and classroom spaces.

Ground was broken on the project this fall and it is expected to open in spring 2026.

Dietrich told UPI that under the museum’s plans, the Ward Gun will take a star turn among larger themes of collecting the memories, experiences and artefacts of Minnesota’s veterans. The idea already has the approval of the gun’s owner, the Naval History and Heritage Command.

“The USS Ward Gun is not just a symbol of Minnesota’s history — it’s a testament to the courage and sacrifice of those who served,” he said.

Plans for a new museum

Dietrich said that despite Minnesota’s rich contributions to U.S. military history, and because the state is home to 300,000 veterans, it has never had a sufficient museum honoring their achievements and sacrifices.

“It’s a big opportunity and we want to make sure we get it right,” he said. “Our current 5,000-square-foot space is not a museum facility. It was what we had to work with and we’ve done our best to outfit is as a museum, and now we have the chance to really build something from the ground up with the veterans’ experience in mind.

“We have a sense of responsibility to do this right and to build a first-class facility.”

With 30 acres of donated land outside of Camp Ripley along a busy highway running through north-central Minnesota, the new museum will strike a high profile. Its location next to a well-known National Guard base and the nearby Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery makes it prime location to attract those interested in military history.

Should the state Capitol architecture board approve the move in the coming months, work on moving and restoring the Ward Gun would commence immediately afterward, to make it ready to display by early 2026. Dietrich said it would anchor the World War II gallery of the museum.

The crew of the USS Ward “did their duty,” he said. “They stood up as they were expected to and took action without any other obvious information available to them that a full-scale enemy attack was on its way.

“As far as Americans firing their guns in World War II, this was it — the first time.”

Honoring veterans of other conflicts

The new museum will go well beyond World War II and mainly seeks to honor the stories and memories of Minnesotans who entered the military in the wake of another surprise assault on American soil — the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Dietrich said the facility will provide a testament to state natives who died in the attacks and to the members of all the service branches who fought in Afghanistan, Iraq and other locales in the following years.

For instance, part of the gallery space will be devoted to the story of Tom Burnett, who was on United Flight 93 and among the group of passengers who fought back against the 9/11 hijackers who took over the plane, forcing it to crash in Pennsylvania.

Authorities believe the terrorists intended to attack the U.S. Capitol.

Another exhibit will honor the services of a much more recent event — the evacuation of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, in late August 2021.

“There you had more than 400 Minnesota guardsmen who had been arrayed around the Middle East prior to that evacuation and suddenly they received orders to be at the airport,” Dietrich said.

“Arguably, those evacuations didn’t begin in earnest until Minnesota soldiers arrived to be sort of the linchpin to make sure there was security around the entire perimeter.

“A lot of them were young people who hadn’t been deployed before who now find themselves in Kabul. There are all sorts of examples of post-9/11 that we’re going to touch on.”