SF3c John A. Smith

The tease appeared in the yearbook for McClain High in Greenfield, Ohio, a town of 4,228 in Highland County about 50 miles south-southeast of Columbus.

Mr. Smith graduated in 1940 and that September traveled to Cincinnati with two other Greenfield men to enlist in the Navy. All three were assigned to the U.S.S. Arizona. Mr. Smith and Hurschel Woodrow Wilson were killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941. James L. Wise was severely burned but survived.

Mr. Smith was a shipfitter and petty officer third class.

He was born May 9, 1920, the fifth child of Clarence E. Smith, a farmer and later a Highland County commissioner, and Elma Ladd Smith, a homemaker.

By 1920 the father was the manager of a farm in Madison Township, which included Greenfield. Ten years later he was listed as a general farmer but still an employee. In October 1934 the mother died when the boy was 14. By April 1940 the father was the manager of a school garage and had earned $2,340 the year before – equivalent to about $45,000 in 2022 dollars.

In September 1940 the son married a Greenfield woman, Rosetta Leugers, and they had a daughter who was one when he died.

Mr. Smith was one of seven men from nearby communities in southwest Ohio on the ship. James Lowell Flannery, Donald William Caplinger, Ralph Ernest Poole and Mr. Wilson also died. Wendell Lee Flannery (James’s brother) and Mr. Wise survived.

Sources: The Press-Gazette of Hillsboro, Ohio; The Minster (Ohio) Post; US Census; McClain High yearbook; Ohio marriage license. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.

Sources: The Press-Gazette of Hillsboro, Ohio; The Minster (Ohio) Post; US Census; McClain High yearbook; Ohio marriage license. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.