S1c Edward Puzio

Edward Puzio was born Aug. 27, 1918 in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania 90 miles north of Philadelphia. His mother, Anna Malez Puzio, was a homemaker and his father, Joseph Puzio, a glassmaker. They were Polish immigrants.

Young Mr. Puzio graduated from the local high school, where he played basketball. 

The spring 1940 Census indicated that the Puzios, like most other families, struggled to make ends meet during the Great Depression. Edward and an older brother worked 30 weeks in 1939 as horticultural laborers and earned $450 each. Their father had no work but $204 in other income, while a younger brother earned $240 as a fountainman at a store. The only relative employed full time, a younger sister, earned $728 as a bookkeeper. The combined earnings of $2,072 supported a household of seven.

Edward Puzio enlisted in the Navy on Sept. 4, 1940. He was a seaman first class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

All of his brothers also served in the war — Samuel and William in the Army and Lewis in the Navy.

Sources: The Pocono Record of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania; the Pottsville (Pennsylvania) Republican; Commonwealth of Pennsylvania World War II Veterans Compensation Bureau; Census; grave markers. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.