ENS Andrew Curtis Uhrenholdt

The family of Ensign Andrew Curtis Uhrenholdt honored him and his uncle, also named Andrew, when it donated more than 100 acres of forested land to the state of Wisconsin.

Andrew Curtis Uhrenholdt was killed Dec. 7, 1941 on the U.S.S. Arizona during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. His uncle, a member of an Army machine gun battalion, died in World War I.

The Uhrenholdt Memorial Forest in Sawyer County in northwest Wisconsin, dedicated in 1947, remains a demonstration forest to showcase land management. The property, rich with red and white pine, aspen, tamarack and black spruce, was originally owned by Danish immigrants Soren and Christine Uhrenholdt. The forest also honors their memory. Soren came to the United States because he lacked the legal status to own land in Denmark. He became known as both a farmer and a conservationist.

Andrew Curtis Uhrenholdt, born Aug. 19, 1920, in Hayward, Wisconsin, was their grandson. His parents were Jens Uhrenholdt and Blanche McCombs Uhrenholdt.

He attended Ely Junior College in Ely, Minnesota, then joined the Navy. He served briefly on the U.S.S. Arkansas in 1940 before he was appointed to the Naval Reserve Midshipman’s School in New York. He was commissioned as an ensign in February 1941 and assigned to the Arizona. He was a communications watch officer with his battle station in the plot close to ground zero – behind the conning tower at the base of the ship’s operational superstructure and below the chart house.

Sources: Uhrenholdt family papers at the Wisconsin Historical Society; Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources; Naval History and Heritage Command; the Eau Claire (Wisconsin) Leader. Navy photograph. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.