Lt. Robert H. Taylor was on the signal bridge of the USS Raleigh when Japanese planes roared over Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. His ship fired some of the first defensive shots of the aerial attack. Now his name hangs on a banner along Third Street in Coronado.

Taylor is one of 12 veterans honored this year in Group XXII of the city's Avenue of Heroes program, which displays commemorative banners along Third and Fourth streets from Orange Avenue to Naval Air Station North Island. The banners will remain up through November 2026.

His story was told in a profile published Aug. 26 in the Coronado Eagle & Journal, written by his son Robert M. Taylor, a Coronado resident.

Robert "Bob" Taylor grew up in Milledgeville, Georgia, and entered the U.S. Naval Academy Class of 1930 on an appointment from Rep. Carl Vinson. After graduating, he served aboard USS Oklahoma, USS Pennsylvania and USS Holland before spending two years teaching at the Naval Academy. He was then assigned as flag lieutenant to Commander, Destroyers Battle Force, in San Diego. He and his wife, Agnes, moved to Coronado.

In October 1940, Taylor reported as communications officer aboard the light cruiser USS Raleigh. The family profile described him as a popular officer known for his warm Southern drawl and whimsical cartoons that appeared in shipboard publications.

That Sunday morning in December 1941, the Raleigh sat moored at Pearl Harbor with much of its crew on weekend leave. At 7:50 a.m., Taylor and a fellow officer spotted planes approaching. Minutes later, a torpedo slammed into the ship's port side, knocking out all steam and electrical power.

Taylor rigged auxiliary communications and organized a system of runners to relay orders across the crippled vessel. Eleven minutes after the torpedo struck, the Raleigh's guns opened fire.

The ship's commanding officer, Capt. Robert B. Simons, wrote in his after-action report that he believed the Raleigh "had the honor of firing the first shot in defense of Pearl Harbor," according to a 2015 account in Naval History Magazine. That claim refers to the aerial attack phase; the USS Ward had fired on a Japanese midget submarine near the harbor entrance roughly an hour earlier.

Within a month of the attack, Taylor was promoted and appointed flag lieutenant to Adm. Thomas Kinkaid. He served in the battles of Coral Sea, Midway, Guadalcanal, the Solomon Islands, the Aleutian Islands and Leyte Gulf.

In January 1944, Taylor became navigation officer of USS Nashville, the flagship of Gen. Douglas MacArthur. He returned MacArthur to the Philippines in October 1944. Taylor later commanded Destroyer Division 52 in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. His decorations included the Silver Star, Legion of Merit and two Bronze Stars with Combat V.

The Avenue of Heroes program was established in 2014 through a partnership between the City of Coronado, VFW Post 2422, the Third and Fourth Streets Neighborhood Association and the Coronado Historical Association. Nominations are accepted year-round and can be emailed to [email protected] or mailed to City of Coronado Avenue of Heroes, 1825 Strand Way, Coronado, CA 92118.

Taylor died unexpectedly in June 1950 in Newport, Rhode Island. He was 41. His daughter, Ann, and son, Robert Martin Taylor, both live in Coronado.