JIM SECOR
Age: 86
Born: Feb. 29, 1924
Hometown: Ann Arbor, Mich.
Residence: Palm Desert
Military branch: U.S. Navy; USS San Diego (CL-53); USS Hamlin (AV-15); USS Valentine (AF-47)
Years served: November 1941 - October 1945
Rank: Petty officer second class
Family: Wife Shirley; three children, Jim Secor of Ruidoso, N.M., Curtis Secor of Indio and Kyle Secor of Los Angeles; six grand children; four great-grandchildren.
About this series
Staff writer Denise Goolsby will profile desert veterans from World War II through the end of 2010 — the 65th anniversary of the end of the war. Contact her at (760) 778-4587 or via e-mail at denise.goolsby@thedesertsun.com
Coming tomorrow
U.S, Navy veteran Larry Booth of La Quinta.
LEARN MORE: Read about other Coachella Valley residents who served in World War II at mydesert.com/wwii.
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U.S. Navy veteran Jim Secor was 17 and working at Ford Motor Company when he joined the service.
Secor, who grew up in Detroit, was waiting to get into the company's trade school when he suddenly changed course.
“I decided I didn't want to work in the factory like everybody else,” Secor said.
Secor's father reluctantly signed the papers to let his underage son enlist early.
Secor entered boot camp in Newport, R.I. in November 1941, but when Pearl Harbor was attacked, the soon-to-be-sailors' training was shortened.
He was sent to Boston Navy Yard, where the USS San Diego — a light anti-aircraft carrier — was soon to set sail for the Pacific.
“That's when I had my first of dozens of Spam sandwiches,” he said. “I haven't had one since.”
The USS San Diego arrived in Pearl Harbor on Dec. 24, 1941.
“We were there during the cleanup,” he said. “It was a mess. We saw what was left of the famous battleship, the USS Arizona.”
He said the oil slick was nearly a half-inch thick and the harbor was cluttered with debris.
After a few weeks, the ship headed out to sea to support the invasion of Guadalcanal.
The men saw their first major combat action during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, where they were attacked by aircraft and submarines.
The ship was assigned to protect the port side of the USS Hornet after the starboard side suffered heavy damage from torpedo and bomb attacks. It eventually slipped down into the sea. The USS San Diego recovered some of her survivors.
The USS San Diego is credited with knocking three enemy aircraft out of the sky during the skirmish, according to military records.
“After that battle, I was determined to get a topside battle station so I could see what was going on and have a chance to go over the side in case of an ‘abandon ship' order,” Secor said.
Coincidentally, one of the men operating a 20 mm gun outside in the open decided he'd rather be stationed inside a turret.
“The gunnery officer let us switch places,” Secor said.
Secor and the men of the USS San Diego also fought in many other battles around the Pacific, including Rabaul, Gilbert Islands, Kwajalein and Truk. By the time the ship was decommissioned in November 1946, she had been awarded 18 battle stars — one of the most decorated ships of World War II, according to historic reports.
While on leave, Secor received orders to report to the naval shipyard in Tacoma, Wash.
“That's when I met and married my wife, Shirley. We knew each other for just a few weeks when I proposed.”
After a short tour on the USS Hamlin, Secor was shipped back to the States to attend small craft training school in Miami.
He was later assigned to temporary duty in Galveston, Texas, as a nucleus of a crew of the USS Valentine.
The couple lived off base, and Secor reported every day to answer the roll call.
The rest of the day, “Nobody did anything,” he said. “It was so ridiculous. What a waste.”
Since he'd be going overseas soon, Secor wanted to spend as much time as he could with his wife before he departed — so he came up with a plan.
“We shared a house with another shipmate and his wife,” Secor said. “He was assigned to permanent shore duty, so he would go out to the base every day and answer for me at morning roll call.”
From Texas, Secor went to Mobile, Ala., where he picked up the USS Valentine, a brand-new refrigerated cargo ship, and headed back out to the Pacific.
One night in his sleeping quarters, Secor noticed movement.
“I said, ‘What is that crawling on that beam?'”
It was a rat — about 2 feet long, including the tail.
They discovered many rats scurrying around the ship. They'd found their way aboard when the USS Valentine was recently docked.
“The ship was just saturated with rats,” he said. “We went up topside. A guy who claimed he was an expert rifleman” went down below.
“You could hear the bullets careening off the bulkhead. We got rid of all those rats.”
Soon, he was shipped back to the States to San Pedro. But he had to go Michigan to be processed for discharge.
“I received $23 for travel to my place of enlistment,” he said. “So in order to get back to the West Coast, one of my shipmates and I hitchhiked to the state of Washington.”
