S1c Walter Pershing Brock

Walter Pershing Brock was born Sept. 30, 1921, in London, Kentucky. His mother, Julia Crook Brock, taught school for a few years before she married and became a homemaker. His father, Foster Brock, was a farmer.

Walter, the third of four children, applied to the Navy in September 1940 and enlisted on Oct. 15. He said he’d completed 12th grade in London, Kentucky, and had also lived in Oregon and Indiana. He went aboard the U.S.S. Arizona on Dec. 9 while the battleship was docked at the Puget Sound Navy Yard in Bremerton, Washington.

Mr. Brock was a seaman first class when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

There is a cenotaph in his memory at A. R. Dyche Memorial Park in London, Kentucky. His parents are buried there.

His brother Curt, who was four years younger, also served in the Navy during World War II.

Sources: Census; Navy enlistment records and muster roll; family obituaries; grave markers and cenotaph. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.