They were young Everett men, just a year out of high school.

Like many of their Everett High School friends, John Hayes and George Petersen were only kids when they joined the Washington National Guard’s 161st Infantry Regiment.

“We were 15,” said Hayes, who now lives in Mukilteo. “Bert Vanderwilt, the principal, had all of us kids join. He knew we were not of age. We were making $21 a month before the war. We had drills every Monday.”

Sure enough, the 1941 Nesika, Everett High’s yearbook, is dedicated “To Major Bert Vanderwilt, our understanding and competent principal, who willingly answered his nation’s call to colors.”

Vanderwilt is pictured in uniform, opposite a page showing the young student faces of “EHS National Guards.”

Petersen and Hayes, now both 87, were members of the class of 1940.

By Dec. 6, 1941, they were more than a year into active duty with the 161st Infantry, part of the 41st Infantry Division. In September 1940, with Europe already embroiled in war, President Franklin Roosevelt had called the 41st Division to active duty.

Petersen, Hayes and a good many former Everett High classmates spent a tough year living in tents at Camp Murray, the National Guard training facility near Fort Lewis.

“We arrived there in September of 1940. That winter of ’40 was nothing but rain and snow. We were in tents, and never got warm,” Petersen said.

“It rained so bad, everybody at Camp Murray had 2-foot ditches around their tents to take the rains,” Hayes said. “And George was the bugler,” he recalled.

Their year of active duty was suddenly extended for one more year. The plan was for the 161st to go to the Philippines in anticipation of a possible Japanese invasion.

That Saturday afternoon — Dec. 6, 1941 — they boarded a troop train at Fort Lewis. It was to take the 161st Infantry to San Francisco. There, they were to board a ship bound for the Philippines. They made it to San Francisco, but not before getting monumental news.

“Heading south, we got to sleep. Early in the morning the train stopped in Klamath Falls, Oregon,” Hayes said. “Kids with newspapers were running up and down outside the train trying to sell them.”

Stunned, they read ominous news of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor that Sunday morning. Hayes remembered a reaction shared by many: “Where in the hell is Pearl Harbor?”

Petersen’s brother Thad, a 1935 Everett High graduate, was in the Navy on a ship at Pearl Harbor. He wasn’t injured in the attack.

With their country at war with Japan, plans changed. Their 161st Infantry was sent to Hawaii, not the Philippines. Hayes remembered troops being taught beach warfare.

From Hawaii, the young men with a shared Everett past went in many directions.

The 161st Infantry, by then paired with the 25th Infantry Division, went first to Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Some members fought on other Pacific islands all the way through to the end of World War II in 1945.

As Hayes and Petersen sifted through recollections now nearly 70 years old, many names from the 161st Infantry came to mind, including Merlin “Boody” Gilbertson and Ray “Tiny” Arndt, both members of Everett High’s 1940 state championship basketball team. “So many were Everett and Snohomish County boys,” Hayes said.

Petersen’s duty ended, and he returned home and trained for a career in optometry. Hayes went to Officers’ Candidate School at Miami Beach, Fla., where he said actors Clark Gable and William Holden were in his class of 3,000 men. Most of his war years were spent at Stewart Field, an air base near West Point, N.Y.

“I was a base personnel officer there,” said Hayes, who married, came home to Everett, went to work for the West Coast Telephone Co. and raised two children.

“I’m so lucky. And I feel so sorry for so many people who lost their lives,” Hayes said.

About 10 years ago, Hayes attended a reunion luncheon of the 161st Infantry. “There aren’t many fellows still living from the 161st Infantry,” Hayes said.

“If you were a member of the 161st, all of you should always be remembered,” he said.

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com.