S1c Holger Earl Sorensen

Holger Earl Sorensen was born Sept. 9, 1921 in Hot Springs, South Dakota about 50 miles south of Rapid City in the far western part of the state. His mother, Avls Grace Larsen Sorensen, was a homemaker and his father, Soren Sorensen, a farmer. The mother had immigrated from Canada and the father from Norway.

The April 1930 Census said Earl, as his mother listed him, lived with her and two siblings in Hot Springs. They soon moved to New Mexico, where the mother was an artist and worked with Indians in Española about 20 miles north-northwest of Santa Fe.

Holger enlisted in the Navy on April 3, 1940 in Santa Fe and graduated from boot camp at the San Diego Naval Training Station. Mr. Sorensen 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 body was recovered and is buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at the Punchbowl in Honolulu.

Sources: The Santa Fe New Mexican; Census; Navy muster roll; grave marker. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.