James Frederick Sooter earned $6 a month in 1938 as the door monitor at the junior high school in Weslaco, Texas.

He was employed by the National Youth Administration, a Depression-era jobs program aimed at keeping poor students in school.

Fred, as he was known, played football and basketball at Weslaco High School and sang in both the boys and the mixed quartets. He had completed 10th grade by the time he applied to the Navy in May 1940.

He enlisted on June 7, 1940.

Mr. Sooter was a radioman and petty officer third class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

He was born Aug. 24, 1921 in Clyde, Texas, to James Milton Sooter and Beulah Edwards Sooter. The father was an agent for a washing machine company and later an oil company driller. The mother was a homemaker. 

Another son, Robert, served in the Marines during the war.

Sources: The McAllen (Texas) Daily Press; the Valley Morning Star of Harlingen, Texas; The Monitor of McAllen, Texas; The Weslaco Hi-Life of Weslaco High School; Census; Marine muster roll; Navy enlistment records; the Texas State Historical Association. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.