John Emmet Hosler was born July 3, 1922 in Fairfield County, Ohio, probably in the village of Amanda.

By 1930 he was living in Columbus, where his father, Harry E., was a machinist at a tool company, and his mother, Lota May Hosler, was a homemaker. The parents divorced in the early 1930s.

John completed 9th grade at Mound Junior High in Columbus in 1936.

The 1940 Census, conducted in April, said John worked 36 weeks in 1939 in research for the Civilian Conservation Corps, a Depression-era federal jobs program. The CCC, as it was known, employed single men 18 to 25 to plant trees, build roads and trails and make other improvements to public land, forests and parks. The men lived at camps across the country and were provided a bed and three meals a day. Of their $30 monthly pay, $25 was sent to their families. He was in Co. 1509 at Fresno, Ohio.

He enlisted in the Navy in October 1940. Mr. Hosler 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 brother, Joseph R., served in the Army during the war.

Sources: the Lancaster (Ohio) Eagle-Gazette; Census; Navy enlistment records and muster roll; U.S. Defense Department. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.