F2c Charles Orval Strange

Charles Orval Strange was born Nov. 27, 1921 in Edwardsport, a town of about 500 in southwest Indiana. His father, Monte Strange, was a farmer and his mother, Edith Dillon Strange, a homemaker.

By 1930 the family had moved about 10 miles south-southeast near Washington, population 9,070, the seat of Daviess County. By April 1940 Charles Orval had completed high school and was living in nearby Steele, Indiana, where he worked as a farm hand. He earned $180 for 30 weeks of work in 1939 – the equivalent of about $3,500 in 2022 dollars.

He enlisted in the Navy on Sept. 25, 1940 and was a fireman second class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

A brother, William, served in the 411th Airborne Quartermaster Co. from March 1942 through October 1945.

Sources: Indiana birth record; Census; military application for headstone; Navy muster roll; Morris & Hislope Funeral Home announcement. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.