Just seconds after Japanese fighter planes roared in, Warren McCutcheon was shot through the heart by an enemy gunner, becoming the first American serviceman to die at Pearl Harbor.

McCutcheon, a 17-year-old seaman second class aboard the USS Maryland, died instantly.

Ceremonies honoring him were held in Gridley, Calif., on May 27, 1996, to dedicate a memorial in his honor. More than 300 people gathered at the cemetery in McCutcheon’s hometown to honor the fallen sailor with a 9-foot-high granite monument.

“He had no warning — he had no chance,” the inscription at the monument reads.

“He was hit right away and died instantly,” said Leon Smith, 72, McCutcheon’s boyhood friend who was on the nearby USS Honolulu. “They picked him up off the deck and put him on a magazine so nobody would step on him.”

The monument, which also features a pair of 50-foot flagpoles and six 25-foot poles, is about 200 feet from McCutcheon’s simple gravesite.

Associated Press and Star-Advertiser