Albert Joseph Smith was an assistant to the communications officer of the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

One Navy record says his title as a lieutenant (junior grade) was awarded posthumously, and he is shown holding that rank by the National Park Service at Pearl Harbor.  Other records say that at the time of his death he was a Chief Radio Electrician, the highest rank for a Warrant Officer. He may have worked with the then top-secret new field – radar.

He was also coach of the Arizona’s tennis team, which competed against teams from other ships. In April 1941 the team consisted of just five players, but the coach hoped that others would join in to help with at least two matches each week.

Mr. Smith was born on Nov. 21  in Texas, but the year is uncertain. In response to a query from him, the St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Dallas wrote a letter in 1931 that said he was three when he arrived at the orphanage on April 19, 1899. After he received that letter, Mr. Smith told the Navy that it confirmed what he believed was his birth date — Nov. 21, 1896. But that math doesn’t add up. If the orphanage record was right, he was born Nov. 21, 1895. Some of his early Navy records say he was born in 1894.

He completed one year of high school before enlisting in the Navy in Chicago in July 1913. He was discharged four years later but soon re-enlisted.

He served on ships in many places, including Haiti, Mexico, Cuba, Scotland and the Canal Zone. 

He was serving on the U.S.S. Vestal in 1925 when its commander, Capt. W.K. Riddle, wrote a letter in which he said Mr. Smith was in “entire charge” of the radio equipment. He is “courteous, willing and subordinate; he manifests unusual executive ability and has admirable cooperative qualities. His character is exceptionally fine and his commanding officer considers him a splendid influence in the ship and an ornament to the services.”

Mr. Smith was survived by his widow, Josephine Ash Smith, whom he married in 1919. They had five children. The spring 1940 Census said the family lived at Long Beach, California, and that the household included his step-mother, Margaret Bray.

Sources: At ‘Em Arizona; The News and Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina; The Daily Oklahoman of Oklahoma City; Census; Navy enlistment & service records; Virginia marriage license. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.