Solano Chronicles: Mare Island’s role in the history of Pearl Harbor attack

Vallejo Times Herald ^ | 12/04/2025 | Brendan Riley

[Freedom4US]

“ …. the staffer who had the safe’s combination was vacationing at Lake Tahoe”

Maybe not his fault, but one wonders how his military career worked out

[Racketeer]

How tragic that FDR knew it was coming but needed the attack to motivate the American people into accepting his position of entering the war. Americans at 88% did not want to go to war until FDR let Japan attack Pearl Harbor.

[fso301]

How tragic that FDR knew it was coming but needed the attack to motivate the American people into accepting his position of entering the war. Americans at 88% did not want to go to war until FDR let Japan attack Pearl Harbor.

Knowing war was coming is not the same as knowing when and where.

[equaviator]

"The attack on Pearl Harbor galvanized the nation, resulting in an overnight refocusing of all U.S. military, economic, industrial, and scientific activity."

There's nothing like a World War to bring you out of a deep economic depression.

[equaviator]

“There’s nothing like a World War to bring you out of a deep economic depression.”

Post-coffee CORRECTION:

There’s nothing like WINNING a World War to HELP bring you out of a deep economic depression.

[exnavy]

I spent part of 1976 on Mare Island, FT C school. Very interesting place.

[DFG]

I grew up in Vallejo. Both my parents were federal employees at Mare Island. My Dad was a nuclear inspector on nuclear fast attack submarines and my Mom was in personnel. I knew many Navy submarine sailors and government employees in our church. After my Mom retired, she was the head docent at the Mare Island Museum for many years. My Mom’s name is in the acknowledgements for the USS Indianapolis book by Lynn Vincent and Sara Vladic.

[Racketeer]

They intercepted the communication. This is why all of our Carriers were at sea and not at port. FDR was a POS!!

[wetgundog]

I have a framed Union Jack in my office. 22 X 34” size. It says, “Union Jack No. 9 MI 44” ( MI stands for Mare Island ) Proported to be off of the USS Missisippi.

[fso301]

They intercepted the communication. This is why all of our Carriers were at sea and not at port. FDR was a POS!!

The carriers put to sea in November for different reasons.

[libertylover]

“ …. the staffer who had the safe’s combination was vacationing at Lake Tahoe”

Very telling of our lack of readiness.

[silent majority rising]

Quite the history to be proud of. My father was one of the firsts SeaBee (CB) sailors that built the airstrip on Guam, which helped to turn the tide of the war. It was essential to build long airstrips there so that long distance heavy bombers could bomb the crap out of the enemy. They did their jobs! There were still 5000 hostiles on the Island when my Dad set foot on it, and they were shot at on an hourly basis. Yet they finished the airstrip in a matter of days and had Americn troops landing there soon after.

[Cold Heart]

BFL

[ridesthemiles]

LAKE TAHOE TO MARE ISLAND TRIP IN 1941 WOULD HAVE TAKEN AT LEAST 3 HOURS AT THE VERY BEST-—TRAVELING WITH ESCORT/ LIGHTS & SIRENS.

[rxh4n1]

“There’s nothing like a World War to bring you out of a deep economic depression.”

Yep. It was the British and French war orders and purchases. Britain went broke buying stuff from us. Lend-Lease kept them in the war.

[dfwgator]

Britain went broke buying stuff from us. Lend-Lease kept them in the war.

---

And they lost so much manpower, after the war they had to import workers from the colonies, and that was all she wrote.

[exnavy]

Very cool. That was a wonderful little city in the ‘70s. I haven’t been back.

[Captain Walker]

They intercepted the communication. This is why all of our Carriers were at sea and not at port. FDR was a POS!!

The carriers put to sea in November for different reasons.

Correct.

The Important Information that had been communicated to DC in the run-up to the attack on Pearl Harbor was in an enormous "In Box" that had yet to be decrypted and processed.

I often think that the reason for the conspiracy theories about FDR and the attack on Pearl Harbor is an unwillingness to accept that this country could have been caught off guard to the extent that it was.

Gordon Prange's At Dawn We Slept is an absolute must-read on the subject of the attack; this should be considered a primer by anyone with even a cursory interest in the war.

He lays it all out (and at a time before the conspiracy theories took root, so he could hardly be considered an apologist for the FDR administration). The Japanese carriers, even those who did not participate in the attack, simply stopped any and all of their radio transmissions weeks before 12/07; US intelligence could not even hazard a guess as to where they might be, and the estimates were off by several orders of magnitude.

[fso301]

I often think that the reason for the conspiracy theories about FDR and the attack on Pearl Harbor is an unwillingness to accept that this country could have been caught off guard to the extent that it was.

Also politics. Everyone knew war was coming, what was unknown was where and when. Kimmel and Short had warnings and should have had their submarines out on picket and aircraft in the air at dawn on patrol but they didn't.

Even as total as the surprise was at Pearl, the Japanese still took significant losses and would probably have been badly mauled if the US forces had been on alert.