S2c Ernest Mathew Alten

Ernest Mathew Alten attended Oakland High School, where he played football and basketball.

He joined the Navy in April 1941, a few weeks after his 17th birthday.

He was killed seven month later in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Mr. Alten was a seaman second class on the U.S.S. Arizona.

He was born March 20, 1924, in Alameda County, California. His father, Ernest Matthias Alten, was a World War I infantryman and professional baseball player for the Detroit Tigers, and his mother, Bernice Fehely Alten, a nurse and homemaker.

(above) Ernest’s mother, Bernice Fehely Alten in 1916.

Sources: The San Francisco Examiner;  the Napa Register; the Oakland Tribune; Census; Navy muster roll; California birth index; U.S. Department of Defense. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.