Joseph Mlinar was born Oct. 5, 1920 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a steel town about an hour east of Pittsburgh. His mother, Anna Komara Mlinar, was a homemaker and his father, Michael Mlinar, a steelworker. The parents were young adults when they immigrated from Austria in 1898 and 1900.

One of 10 children, Joseph completed 9th grade at Westmont High School in Johnstown in 1936. He served in Co. 304 S-59 of 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. His camp was at Oakland, Maryland, for work at Swallow Falls State Park.

Mr. Mlinar enlisted in the Navy on Feb. 5, 1940. He was a coxswain 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.

Pennsylvania was one of the few states to offer families compensation for men killed during the war. Mr. Mlinar’s parents were approved for the $500 payment in 1950. Their application is a small insight into immigration and education in the early 1900s. Only 18 percent of American adults their age had a high school degree or higher in 1950. As children, Michael Mlinar had the benefit of just one year of schooling, while Anna Mlinar had none. They became U.S. citizens in 1919. The next year’s Census said neither parent could read or write English. When they applied for their son’s death payment, Mr. Mlinar signed his name, while Mrs. Mlinar marked an X.

An older son, Michael Jr., also served in the Pacific during World War II. He was in the Navy from October 1943 through November 1945.

Sources: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania World War II Veterans’ Compensation Bureau; Census; Navy enlistment records and muster roll. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.