Harold Baker Wood was born April 19, 1919 in Fargo, North Dakota. His mother, Grace Baker Wood, was a homemaker and his father, Herbert Wood, an instructor for a streetcar company.

The parents divorced in 1923 and the mother was given custody of Harold and his brother.

In 1930, the family moved to Grand Junction, Colorado. Known to friends as Jack, Harold attended Grand Junction High School for three years through 1934.

He served in the Civilian Conservations 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 was in Co. 3844, Camp DG-11-C at Redvale, Colorado. That camp performed range conservation.

His other remarried in 1937. Mr. Wood worked at the Kuner-Empson Canning Co. for one year before he enlisted in the Navy on Sept. 9, 1938. His mother also worked at the canning company and his step-father, Arthur Traynor, was the superintendent there.

He was a boatswain’s mate second class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

When the local newspaper published a story on Dec. 21 saying he was missing in action, it included a photograph Mr. Wood sent to his mother and stepfather two days before he died.

His only sibling, Donald, was in the Army during the war and then served 10 years in the Army Reserve.

Sources: The Daily Sentinel of Grand Junction, Colorado; Social Security record; Census; North Dakota divorce index; Navy enlistment records and muster roll. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.