Uhrichsville native honored in Pearl Harbor remembrance

James Haverfield was a young man who lived a simple, mostly uneventful life in a small town and died young. He nevertheless left a legacy of memorials, namesakes and careful remembrance.The attack on Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Hawaii began at 7:55 a.m. Dec. 7, 1941. The USS Arizona was among the first to be struck by attacking Japanese air forces. Within approximately 15 minutes, the ship went to the bottom.Aboard the Arizona that morning was Ensign James Wallace Haverfield of Uhrichsville. At 7:55 a.m. Dec. 7, 2014, a group gathered at the James Haverfield memorial at Waterworks Park in Uhrichsville to remember the young local native who lost his life in the opening minutes of U.S. involvement in World War II. Among them were family members, local dignitaries and clergy. Some of those who attended have ties to Haverfield’s story to the present day. James Haverfield was born in Uhrichsville in 1917 and graduated high school in 1935. Cathy Cottis, an organizer of the memorial event this year, said Haverfield “must have been a bit of a pistol–he carved his name into the wall behind the high school auditorium. It’s still there to this day.” After earning a degree from Ohio State University in 1939, Haverfield enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1940, gaining a commission as ensign in June, 1941, when he was assigned to the battleship Arizona. At age 24, Haverfield became Tuscarawas County’s first war casualty. In the aftermath of the attack, the navy turned to the casualty list of the Arizona to find names for new ships, and the USS Haverfield, built in little more than a month, launched August 30, 1943.The Haverfield saw action as an escort ship in search-and-destroy missions in the Atlantic throughout the remainder of the war, and was prepared for the planned invasion of Japan when peace came in August 1945. The Haverfield was decommissioned, ironically at Pearl Harbor, in 1969, and scrapped two years later. In another memorial to the Uhrichsville native, Haverfield Hall at Ohio State University in Columbus is named for him and is in use today. Among those who gathered for the service this year were men who spent their Navy service aboard the USS Haverfield in the 1960s and made the trip to pay honor to her namesake. Lt. Dave Smith of Huron, Lt. Don Swift of Bristol, Ind., and Petty Officer Larry Cline of Waldo, all retired, attended and shared memories and comradeship from their time aboard the ship together. They are members of the Haverfield Sailors Association, a group which annually awards a Claymont High School graduate a $1,000 scholarship. Cline said the scholarship “is a great way to honor Haverfield’s name, his service, his sacrifice.” Smith said while the men served aboard the Haverfield, “we didn’t realize the significance of the ship’s name.” It was after their service that they learned the story.Asked why the three men had traveled some distance to be present at the service, Cline said, “Haverfield is still aboard that ship, still in service 73 years later. It is a small thing to come out and honor that.”