Leland Jones was born April 11, 1921 and enlisted in the Navy on Dec. 19, 1939. He was a seaman first class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

He was born in Hohenwald, Tennessee, to Hobert Sam Jones, a farmer, and Dorothy Johnston Jones, a homemaker. She died in either 1925 or 1926.

On his enlistment application Leland said his home was in Jacksonville, Arkansas, where he’d work for six months as a farm laborer. Accompanying paperwork said his highest level of school achievement was 6th grade at North Waco (Texas) grade school. He’d lived in Waco five years.

Sources: U.S. Veterans Administration; the Hickman County (Tennessee) Times; grave markers; Tennessee marriage licenses; Census; Navy enlistment records and muster roll. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.