World War II Honoree

Jesse Herbert Gurley

Branch of Service

U.S. Navy

Hometown

Karnak, Illinois

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Storekeeper Third Class. He was inducted into the United States Navy October 9, 1939 at Saint Louis, Missouri, with recruit training at the U.S. Naval Training Station San Diego, California. After completing boot camp, he was transferred to the USS Arizona Battleship, BB-39 for duty, and had the responsibility for ordering, stocking, issuing repair parts, clothing and general supplies, 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. In his Memory and Honor, a cenotaph memorial has been placed at the Vienna Fraternal Cemetery in Vienna, Illinois. This American Patriot was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, for his ultimate sacrifice in defense of his country.