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Russel Reetz, a sailor aboard the USS Ward which was credited with firing the first American shots of World War II at Pearl Harbor, has died. The Maplewood resident was 88.
He died of complications related to lymphoma and heart and lung problems.
Reetz was 25 years old when his fellow crew members, including 82 reservists from St. Paul, 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 sunk the submarine, but it wasn't until two years ago that the wreckage was found by the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory.
Reetz was elated by the discovery, said his daughter, Cindy Tritz. 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 his later years, his involvement with the Ward become more important to him, said his widow, Loretta Reetz. ``That was what kept him going,'' she said.
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.
Born and raised in West St. Paul, Reetz joined the Naval Reserves in 1940. After the end of the war, he became a pipe fitter, taught courses at a technical school and worked at a wastewater treatment plant. He retired about 20 years ago.
Reetz is scheduled to be buried Tuesday at Fort Snelling National Cemetery.
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