Sixty years after he joined the US Navy, Friendswood resident John McWaid remembers what it felt like to be an American, standing at the brink of a world war.

In September 1941, McWaid joined the active duty ranks at the US Naval Air Station, in Coronado, CA.

Two months later, following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, McWaid became an air control and radar officer on the USS Northampton, a heavy cruiser.

On Nov. 30, 1942, the Northampton was sunk at Guadalcanal, in the Battle of Tassafaronga. McWaid, ordered to abandon ship with his shipmates, disobeyed and organized a firefighting party, determined to save the wounded ship.

Despite efforts that later garnered a Silver Star for gallantry in action, McWaid eventually had to abandon ship.

On his next assignment, McWaid took up duties again as air control and radar officer, this time on the USS Salt Lake City, another heavy cruiser.

In March of 1943, while cruising south of Russia’s Komandorskie Islands, in the Aleutians, the Salt Lake was hit by Japanese bomber planes and cruised to a halt, dead in the water, commonly known as “speed zero” by naval personnel.

Three American destroyers drew away the Japanese fire on the Salt Lake, while a fourth ship surrounded the Salt Lake in a smoke screen.

The screen provided temporary cover while the ship’s engineer tired to repair the engines.

As the Japanese fleet closed in, McWaid picked up his radio, pretending to communicate with other ships and asked, “How many did you say are coming? How many ‘Big Boys?’”

In Navy lingo, Big Boys was a term used for US Bomber planes. According to McWaid, the Japanese must have been listening because they “turned around and left the scene.”

After the war ended, McWaid and his wife, Helen, moved to Friendswood.

Although his eyesight is fading, he says he can still see the war and the faces and people he knew, as clear as yesterday.