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RUSSELL REETZ, PART OF CREW THAT FIRST FIRED AT PEARL HARBOR
Russell Reetz, one of 82 St. Paul Navy reservists aboard Pearl Harbor’s USS Ward, which was credited with firing the first American shots of World War II, died Nov. 4 from complications related to lymphoma, heart and lung problems. The Maplewood resident was 88. Reetz was just 25 years old when his fellow crew members fired two shots at a Japanese two-man submarine trying to sneak into Pearl Harbor a little more than an hour before the attack on Dec. 7, 1941. One shot struck the submarine, sinking it. But that claim was doubted for decades until two years ago, when the submarine wreckage was found by the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory. When it was, Reetz was elated, his daughter, Cindy Tritz said. He asked her to write a letter to a skeptical admiral he met because the admiral told him he didn’t think it was possible that the Ward’s shells could sink a submarine, she said. The letter said, “have you heard that they found it?” Tritz said. He got a very nice response from the admiral that said, “I’m glad to believe the impossible can happen.”
In Reetz’ later years, his involvement with the Ward became more important to him, his widow Loretta Reetz, said. “That was what kept him going,” she said. So much so that he became the secretary/treasurer of the First Shot Naval Vets, a club formed in 1947 by the men of the Ward. The group also helped get the gun from the Ward brought to St. Paul in 1958, where it now sits on the Capitol grounds next to the Veterans Service Building. Reetz participated in a 2000 National Geographic expedition in search of the sunken Japanese submarine with underwater explorer Robert Ballard, who found the Titanic in 1985.
Active in local veterans groups, Reetz was a former commander of VFW Post 5041 and a member of the Knights of Columbus Council No. 4374. Reetz was also a member of Pipefitters Union Local 455 and volunteered for the American Red Cross for 10 years.
Born and raised in West St. Paul, Reetz joined the Naval Reserve in 1940. After the end of the war, he went to trade school and became a pipe fitter. During the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, he also taught an air-conditioning and heating course a Dunwoody College of Technology. He retired about 20 years ago from the wastewater treatment plant in St. Paul. Reetz is survived by his wife, Loretta; his children, Russell, Jr, Aleta, Cindy and Randall; 11 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. Visitation is at 10 AM today before the 11 AM funeral service at St. Jerome’s Catholic Church, 380 Roselawn Ave. E. in Maplewood. Reetz will be buried Tuesday at Fort Snelling National Cemetery.
By Nancy Yang, St. Paul Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minnesota
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