EM3c Dale Andrew Ruttan

Dale Andrew Ruttan was born June 22, 1922 in Detroit, Michigan. He was the third of four sons of Olive Davis Ruttan, a homemaker, and Gordon J. Ruttan Sr., chief timekeeper at an auto parts factory.

The family moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1932 and Dale attended St. Petersburg High School. The spring 1940 Census said he was still enrolled and had completed one year. By then his father was a road construction supervisor for the Works Progress Administration, a Depression-era federal jobs program.

Dale enlisted in the Navy on Sept.  23, 1940. He was an electrician’s mate and petty officer third class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

His mother, age 48, had died four day earlier.

At least two of his brothers served in the military — Gordon Jr. in the Army Air Corps and Don in the Air Force.

Sources: the Tampa Bay (Florida) Times; Census; Navy muster roll; grave markers.This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.