Like other survivors of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor December 7^th, 1941, that brought the United States into World War II, Mal found it a watershed experience.

At Pearl Harbor he was assigned to the Submarine Tender Argonne. The eldest of three children he was born in San Pedro California and raised in the east San Francisco Bay area where he left High School and joined the Navy.

On the morning of the attack, Garcia was ashore, visiting his aunt and grand mother, who lived in Honolulu. They were about ready to go to church. His aunt had the radio on and all of a sudden they interrupted saying “Pearl harbor was being attacked by the Japanese”, by then you could see the smoke coming up. Mal put on his uniform and ran to the Black Cat Café, a favorite sailor hangout where the Pearl Harbor shuttle bus stopped. By the time he got to the Argonne the nearby cruiser Helena had been torpedoed.

Assigned to the dock detail an officer yelled at him “Hey coxswain get that whaleboat out of here”, Mal thought to himself I’m not a coxswain I’m a radioman; however you don’t argue with a commander.

For the rest of the day Garcia was the coxswain or helmsman of an 18ft whaleboat. He and another sailor ferried dead and wounded from ships to shore and carried messages until that night.

Garcia later recalled there was no time to be scared things were moving to fast. He felt he had aged during the attack from 17 to about 35 and couldn’t remember what it was like to be a teenager.

Mal Garcia spent the rest of the war on other warships in the Pacific. After the war he left the service but two years later he reconsidered and returned to active duty. Garcia retired after 22 years of Naval Service as a Senior Chief Radioman.