Writer profiles every USS Arizona casualty at Pearl Harbor
Nearly 1,200 sailors tracked down and respectfully honored
TUCSON, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY/AP) - Former Arizona Daily Star Editor Bobbie Jo Buel searched newspaper archives and public records, collecting snapshots and personal letters of every U.S.S. Arizona casualty at Pearl Harbor.
Her work began in May 2016 with Buel storing details about the men in spreadsheets. She said this helped her to better understand not just the individuals but the collective story they told as a crew.
The list of casualties includes cousins, uncles, nephews and best friends, many of whom enlisted, served and then died together.
She says that almost 25% of the sailors lost one or both parents before the age of 18. At least 6% also saw their parents divorced — a figure almost certainly underreported but still three times the national rate in 1940.
Buel also tracked the size of the communities the crew members came from. She said as many as half of them grew up on farms or in towns with populations of less than 1,514.
A story that sticks with her more than most involves four teenagers who enlisted together at a Navy recruiting office in Detroit on a snowy day in November 1940. One of the boys, Chester John Miller, was only 15 at the time, but got through enlistment anyway.
Miller, Clarence W. Lipke, Charles W. McClelland and Byrl Eugene King trained together at Great Lakes Naval Station 30 miles north of Chicago, and all four ended up on ships anchored at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
A virtual collection all profiles can be viewed here, while a physical memorial is on display 24/7 at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
