Gunners Mate 2nd Class Robert F. McCann
United States Navy (1941-1942)

Robert Frederick McCann was born on February 13, 1917 to parents Sara Weir and Henry McCann of Carnegie. After high school, Robert got a job with Gimbel Brothers Department Store, where he met his future wife Alberta G. Walton. The two were married on September 20, 1938, and settled in a new home at 2321 Edgebrook Avenue in Brookline.

One week after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, on December 15, 1941, Robert enlisted in the U.S. Navy. After initial Naval indoctrination and further training at the Gunner's Mate school at the Naval Training Center, Great Lakes, Illinois, he was assigned to the newly commissioned Atlanta-class Cruiser USS Juneau (CL-52).

The Gunners Mate is responsible for the operation, maintenance, and troubleshooting of naval guns and torpedoes as well as a strong emphasis on basic explosives, small arms, Naval ammunition classification, and safety.

Gunners Mate McCann specialized in a multitude of weapons varieties; arms such as, shotguns, semi-automatic and automatic rifles, pistols, submachine guns, machine guns, explosives, both portable and large-scale and mounted weapons systems. He also cared for and assisted in operating shooting ranges, armories, and the storage and maintenance of arms.

The USS Juneau was commissioned in February 1942. After blockade duty near Martinique, the ship was sent to the South Pacific to support United States operations at Guadalcanal. The Juneau saw action in two of the major naval engagements that contributed to the American victory at Guadalcanal, which halted Japanese expansion towards Australia and turned the tide of battle in favor of the Allies.

Gunners Mate Robert McCann joined the USS Juneau in New York in July 1942. The ship was performing patrol and escort duties at the time. On August 22, the Juneau departed for the Pacific. After stopping briefly at the Tonga Islands and New Caledonia, she rendezvoused on September 10 with Task Force 18 under the command of Rear Admiral Leigh Noyes, flying his flag on the aircraft carrier Wasp.

The following day, Task Force 17, which included the carrier Hornet, combined with Admiral Noyes' unit to form Task Force 61, whose mission was to ferry fighter aircraft to Guadalcanal. On September 15, Wasp took three torpedo hits from the Japanese submarine I-19. With fires raging out of control, the carrier was sunk. The Juneau and screen destroyers rescued 1,910 survivors of Wasp and returned them to Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, on September 16. The next day, the Juneau rejoined Task Force 17.

The Light Cruiser USS Juneau (CL-52) in 1942.

In October 1942, operating with the Hornet group, Task Force 17 and the USS Juneau participated in the Buin-Faisi-Tonolai Raid and in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. Then, in November, the ship was present at the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal.

On November 13, 1942, a Japanese task force, including several warships escorting a troop convoy, approached Guadalcanal. This was a major attempt by the Japanese to reinforce their island garrison and launch an offensive operation to clear the island of the Americans.

As the Japanese ships neared Guadalcanal, they were met by Rear Admiral Daniel J. Callaghan's relatively small Landing Support Group, which included the USS Juneau. At 01:48 the two forces met and began to exchange fire. A fierce battle ensued.

A painting that depicts the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal from the viewpoint of the soldiers on the island.

The USS Juneau was hit by a torpedo and began to list. The ship was forced to withdraw. By morning, the Japanese force had been beaten back, and their reinforcment effort halted. This was a major turning point in the battle of Guadalcanal.

Listing severely, the USS Juneau, along with two other damaged cruisers, began the journey to Australia for repairs. At 11:00 on the morning of November 13, the USS Juneau was hit by two torpedoes from the Japanese submarine, I-26. The ship broke in two and sunk in a mere twenty seconds.

Gunners Mate Robert Frederick McCann was below decks and did not survive the sinking. In a sad irony, another Brookliner, Shipfitter 2nd Class John P. Reitmeyer was also aboard the Juneau when it sunk and was among those that perished on the fateful day.

Over 100 sailors escaped the doomed ship, only to languish for days in the water. News of the sinking was not reported due to the tenuous situation at that time during the Battle of Guadalcanal. The admiralty did not want to risk allowing the Japanese to know the extent of the damages to the fleet. When rescue aircraft arrived, eight days later, only ten survivors remained. In all, 687 young men perished as a result of the sinking of the USS Juneau, including the five Sullivan Brothers.

News of Robert's status reached his wife Alberta in mid-January. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, on January 29, 1943, reported that Robert F. McCann was listed as Missing in Action. Any hopes of his survival were quickly dashed when news came back from of the ten survivors. The Blue Service Star on the window of the McCann home at 2320 Edgebrook Avenue was replaced with a Gold Star.

Gunners Mate 2nd Class Robert Frederick McCann, along with Shipfitter 2nd Class John P. Reitmeyer, of Brookline are both memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, located in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, Metro Manila. They were the first two local casualties of the World War that would eventually claim forty-one sons from the neighborhood. Two other fallen Brookliners, both lost at sea, Frank P. Dornetto and Clarence R. Copeland, are also listed on the Tablets of the Missing in Manila.

In 1987, a memorial to the USS Juneau was erected near the docks in Juneau, Alaska. The bronze tablets were later moved to the USS Juneau Memorial Center, located in Kearny, New Jersey, and rededicated on November 14, 2013. The Memorial Center is in the old Federal Shipbuilding Company, the same building that laid the keel for the ship back in 1940.

On March 20, 2018, explorers located the wreck of the USS Juneau 2.6 miles below the ocean surface off the Soloman Islands. Click here to view video footage of the discovery.

* Written by Clint Burton: May 22, 2018 *

The Brookline War Memorial

Listed below are many of the sons of Brookline who gave their
lives to preserve freedom and contain aggression during
World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died.
Rather, we should thank God that such men lived.”
General George S. Patton
 

World War I (1917-1919)

The World War I Memorial - Washington D.C.

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World War II (1941-1945)

The World War II Memorial - Washington D.C.

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Korean War (1950-1953)

Korean War Memorial - Washington D.C.

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Vietnam War (1965-1973)

Vietnam War Memorial - Washington D.C.

The Brookline Monument - The Cannon

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