Wayland LeMoyne Wait was born Oct. 14, 1920 in Shiedsville, Minnesota. His father was Wayland Douglas Rice and his mother Bernice Hershey Rice. He was the only son among four children.

Soon after the son’s birth they moved to Longview, Washington. The 1930 Census said the father worked as a “mixer man” at Longview Fibre Co.

When LeMoyne, as he was known, applied to the Navy in the spring of 1938 he said he’d completed 8th grade and attended R.A. Long High School for half a year until June 1937.

He enlisted in the Navy on Nov. 15, 1938, and 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.

His name is engraved on his parents’ gravesite at Longview Memorial Park. His body was not recovered from the sunken battleship.

Sources: The Daily News of Longview, Washington; Census; Navy enlistment records and muster roll; cenotaph and grave marker. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.