World War II Honoree

Erwin H. Naasz

Branch of Service

U.S. Navy

Hometown

Rago, Kansas

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Shipfitter Second Class. He was inducted into the United States Navy July 5, 1938 at Kansas City, Kansas, with recruit training at the U.S. Naval Training Station Great Lakes, Illinois. Upon his graduation from boot camp and Shipfitter schooling, he was transferred to the USS Arizona Battleship, BB-39 for duty, responsible for fabricating, assembles and erects all structural parts of his ship, 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, igniting the ship’s forward ammunition magazine. Reported missing in action, lost at sea 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 Walnut Hill Cemetery in Kingman, Kansas. This American Patriot was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, for his ultimate sacrifice in defense of his country.