S1c Elmer Leo Pool

Elmer Lee Pool was born June 22, 1918 in Shelby County in central Indiana. His mother, Matilda Baker Pool, was a homemaker and his father, James Pool, a farm hand. The couple had six children.

The father was hospitalized for eight years before he died of tuberculosis when Elmer was 16.

The spring 1940 Census showed Mrs. Pool living with her five sons, ages 19 to 30, in the county seat, Shelbyville, 25 miles southeast of Indianapolis. All five worked — as a loader at a stone business, a laborer on a road construction crew, a supply agent on a forestation project and two as “bailers.” But as for most people during the Great Depression, steady work was hard to find.  All but one was employed only part of 1939 and their income ranged from $119 to $922.

Elmer Pool, who had completed 8th grade, enlisted in the Navy on Oct. 8, 1940. He was a seaman first class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was injured in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941. He soon died on the Solace, a nearby hospital ship. He was buried in Hawaii for the duration of the war, then returned to Indiana in October 1947. Mr. Pool is buried at New Albany National Cemetery in New Albany, Indiana.

All four of his brothers served in the Army during the war — Edward from January 1941 to October 1945; Robert from February 1942 to November 1945; James from October 1942 to November 1946; and Arthur from March 1943 until a date that is not publicly available.

Sources: The Shelby (Indiana) Republican; grave markers; War Department interment form; Census; U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; Navy muster roll. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.