S2c James Edward Luna

James Edward Luna was born Jan. 7, 1922 in Franklin County in northwest Alabama. His father, Joseph Luna, was a farmer and his mother, Mary Stout Luna, a homemaker. The parents were also Franklin County natives. The family included one other child, a daughter born in 1924.

By early 1930 the family lived in or near the small town of Newburg about 10 miles east of Russellville, the county seat. 

James Luna enlisted in the Navy on Oct. 5, 1940. He was a seaman second class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

His father was an Army private from July 1918 through March 1919.

Sources: Census; grave markers; the Ellensburg (Washington) Daily Record; Defense Department; Navy muster roll. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.