World War II Honoree

Floyd Arthur Wells

Branch of Service

U.S. Navy

Hometown

Cavalier, North Dakota

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Radioman Second Class. He was inducted into the United States Navy April 5, 1938 at Minneapolis, Minnesota, with recruit training at the U.S. Naval Training Station Great Lakes, Illinois. After completing boot camp, he was transferred to the USS Arizona Battleship, BB-39 for duty as a Radio Technician, and based at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii. On Sunday Morning, December 7, 1941 the Emperor 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. In remembrance of the brave, his name is permanently inscribed in the tablets of the missing, memorialized at the Honolulu National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, ‘Punchbowl’ Hawaii. After the cessation of hostilities with Japan, personnel from an American Graves Registration Company disinterred the unknown remains from the Oahu Cemetery, and laid them to rest in the Punchbowl Cemetery. In June of 2015, personnel from the Defense Prisoners of War/Missing in Action Accounting Agency in Hawaii disinterred an unknown from Punchbowl, and transferred the remains to their Honolulu’s laboratory for analysis, where he was identified. The family of this Sailor received his remains for burial. He was laid to rest with Military Honors, October 1, 2019 at the North Dakota Veterans Cemetery in Mandan, North Dakota. This American Patriot was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, for his ultimate sacrifice in defense of his country.