- Rank: Machinist's Mate 2nd Class
- Serial No: 382-07-37
- Branch: US Navy
- Home Town: Los Angeles, CA
- Date Of Birth: September 8, 1921
- Disposition: Unrecovered
- Family DNA on File: YES
MM2c Claude Muncy
Like his father and stepfather, Claude Muncy became a Navy man.
Claude Muncy was was born Sept. 8, 1921 in Tennessee to Claude Henderson Muncy and Essie Tudor Muncy. From kindergarten Claude attended Ocean Beach Elementary School and then one year at Point Loma High School. He graduated from King George County High School in Virginia 45 miles south of Washington, D.C. The 1930 Census showed the family living in April in San Diego, CA, where his father’s occupation was listed as sailor.
Claude Muncy enlisted in the US Navy on September 13, 1938 and completed his basic training at the Naval Training Station in San Diego, CA. He reported for duty aboard the U.S.S. Arizona on March 11, 1939. He was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941. He was a machinist’s mate and petty officer second class on the U.S.S. Arizona.
It isn’t clear from public records when Claude’s father’s Naval service began, but he served on attack transports during the war. He was a chief boatswain’s mate when he was released to inactive duty in February 1945.
Young Mr. Muncy’s parents divorced and both remarried in 1933 — Essie to Harry Andrew Jordan. He had enlisted in 1919 and was retired from the Navy by February 1940. He was recalled a few weeks before the attack on Pearl Harbor and served until September 1946. A news article in January 1942 identified him as a chief boatswain’s mate at the Navy’s training station in San Diego.
Sources: The San Diego Union; Navy muster rolls; Arkansas marriage index; Census; Arizona marriage license; report of interment at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.