S1c Gerald Ernest Gartin,
- Rank:
- Branch:
- Home Town:
- Date Of Birth:
- Disposition:
- Family DNA on File:
S1c Gerald Ernest Gartin
Gerald Ernest Gartin was born at Eureka, Nevada on Sept. 14, 1921. His mother, Virginia Dittes Gartin, was a homemaker and his father, Vic Gartin, a mechanic.
By 1930 the family had moved to Vallejo, California. The parents divorced about 1931, and by 1940 Gerald was living with his father and step-mother in San Anselmo in Marin County.
When Gerald applied to the Navy in November 1940 he said he’d completed one year at Balboa High School in August 1938. He said he’d worked for seven months as a lather and also served in the Civilian Conservation Corps, a Depression-era federal jobs program.
The CCC, as it was known, employed single men 18 to 25 to plant trees, build roads and trails and make other improvements to public land, forests and parks. The men lived at camps across the country and were provided a bed and three meals a day. Of their $30 monthly pay, $25 was sent to their families. He served in Co. 920 at Orleans, California.
Young Mr. Gartin enlisted in the Navy on Nov. 27, 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.
His father had been an Army corporal in World War I.
Sources: Census; Navy enlistment records and muster roll; military record of interment; Department of Defense. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.