SF3c Fred Riganti

Fred Riganti was born Feb. 12, 1919 in Scotch Plains, New Jersey about 15 miles southwest of Newark. His mother, Concetta Saura Riganti, was a homemaker and his father, Pietro Riganti, a shoemaker. The parents, Italian immigrants from southern Italy near Taranto, had seven children.

By 1930 the Rigantis had moved to Bell, California southeast of downtown Los Angeles. The father owned a shoemaking shop, and eventually owned Pete’s Shoe Repair in Redondo Beach.

Fred Riganti enlisted in the Navy on Oct. 12, 1939. He was a shipfitter and petty officer third class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

For fun, he boxed on the Arizona team that competed against sailors from other ships.

His father became a citizen in 1924 and his mother petitioned for naturalization in 1942, the year after Fred died. By then, two other sons, Maurice and Julius, were in the Navy, her petition said.

Sources: The Redondo (California) Reflex; The Los Angeles Times; Census; U.S. petition for naturalization; Navy muster roll; At ‘Em Arizona newsletter of Nov. 9, 1940.. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.