S1c John Buchanan Dial

John Buchanan Dial was born Feb. 4, 1921 at Laurel, Mississippi, to Christopher Columbus Dial, a farmer and later a lumber company worker, and Rachel Butler Dial, a homemaker. They were Presbyterians.

The 1940 Census showed the family living in Hattiesburg. By the time John applied to enlist in the Navy in July 1940 he’d completed 9th grade. One record said he worked as a laborer at a National Youth Administration shop. Another record said he worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps. Both were Depression-era federal jobs programs.

He enlisted in the Navy on Aug. 9, 1940, as an apprentice seaman earning $21 a month. He 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.

Two of his brothers served in the Army and survived the war.


Sources: the Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Mississippi; the Hattiesburg (Mississippi) American; Census; Navy enlistment records and muster roll; grave markers. Clarion-Ledger photograph. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.

 
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