World War II Honoree

Joseph Bernard O'Brien

Branch of Service

U.S. Marine Corps

Hometown

Chicago, Illinois

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Private First Class. He was inducted into the United States Marine Corps July 17, 1940 at Chicago, Illinois. His boot camp training took place with the Fourth Recruit Battalion Training Regiment; Marine Corps Base in San Diego, California. Later he completed his Marine Combat Training at Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, California. After the completion of his combat training, he was selected to attend Sea School at San Diego. Served aboard the USS Arizona Battleship, BB-39 and based at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii. On Sunday Morning, December 7, 1941 the Empire of Japan’s Naval Aviators launched a devastating, surprise attack on the U.S. Naval Base, and other military installations on Oahu. The Arizona moored on Ford Island along with her shipmates came under attack, and she was mortally wounded by an armor piercing bomb that ignited the ship’s forward ammunition magazine. The Battle of Pearl Harbor took his life on the day of the attack. His name is permanently inscribed in the tablets of the missing, memorialized at the Honolulu National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, ‘Punchbowl’ Hawaii. This American Patriot was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, for his ultimate sacrifice in defense of his country.