Lester Leroy Steigleder joined the Navy on March 7, 1938 — two days after his 18th birthday.

He was a coxswain 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.

He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of Andrew Steigleder, a driver for various outfits including Hudepohl Brewing Co., and Lenora Heim Steigleder, a homemaker. The father was a Navy veteran of the Spanish-American War. The family included three other children.

Mr. Steigleder attended St. John School and then Roger Bacon High School in Cincinnati. He completed at least 9th grade. He worked from December 1936 to June 1937 as a laborer for Speciality Manufacturing Co.

Sources: The Cincinnati Enquirer; Census; Ohio birth index; Navy enlistment records and muster roll; application for military headstone. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.