Joseph Stanley Rozmus was the son of Polish immigrants Franciszek “Frank” Rozmus and Maryanna “Mary” Potocz Rozmus. From 1911 they both worked in Manchester, N.H., at Amoskeag Mfg. Co., the largest cotton textile plant in the world until it went bankruptcy in the Great Depression. He was a weaver and she worked in carding rooms where cotton fibers were cleaned and separated.

Joseph was born Aug. 31, 1918 in Manchester and graduated from Central High School in 1939. The yearbook shows that he was a basketball and football player and a member of the rifle club.

When he applied to the Navy he said he’d been employed for two years as a gas station attendant and had been a member of the 172nd Field Artillery of the New Hampshire National Guard.

Known as Joe, he enlisted in the Navy on Oct. 15, 1940 in Boston and went aboard the U.S.S. Arizona on Dec. 10, 1940. He was a seaman first class when he was killed on the Arizona in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

A friend from back home, Marine Sgt. Walter Welch was at Pearl Harbor aboard a heavy cruiser, the U.S.S. San Francisco less than a mile away. He said they planned to visit Waikiki Beach that Sunday. Instead, he watched in horror as the Arizona exploded and huge fires raged on and on.

Sources: Janice Brown for the Cow Hampshire blog; historian Aurore Eaton; Census; Central High yearbook; New Hampshire marriage record; John Clayton of the Manchester Historic Association; Navy enlistment records. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.