S2c Glen Martin Olson

Glen Martin Olson was born in Roosevelt County in northeastern Montana on Sept. 19, 1923. His father, Martin Olson, was a laborer for an electric company and his mother, Anna Marie Olson, a homemaker.

By 1930 the family, which included an older daughter and son, had moved to Arlington, Washington near Seattle.

Young Mr. Olson left Arlington, population 1,460, on June 19, 1941, to enlist in the Navy. He was a seaman second class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed that Dec. 7 in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

It isn’t clear from available records whether he graduated, but the 1944 Arlington High School yearbook listed him as one of three former students missing in action.

Sources: Montana birth record; Navy muster roll; Census; Arlington (Washington) High School yearbook. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.