Leland Grimstead Ostrander’s father was a surgeon at hospitals for veterans, and the family moved around for his job when Lee, as the son was known, was a boy.

Lee was born Sept. 26, 1917 in Barrett, Minnesota to Dr. Arland “Arley” John Ostrander and Mabel Grimstead Ostrander, a homemaker.

By 1920 the family had moved to Enderlin, North Dakota. In 1928 the father became superintendent of the hospital at Fort William Henry Harrison outside Helena, Montana, and by April 1935 they were in Roseburg, Oregon.

Lee completed 10th grade and played sports at the Roseburg high school before he enlisted in the Navy on Oct. 14, 1935. He served until July 14, 1939. 

The father had been a captain in the Army Medical Corps during World War I. He died at home at Cave Junction, Oregon, in October 1939 while cleaning a shotgun. Lee heard the shot and came to his father’s aid, but it was too late.

Lee was living with a brother and his family in Roseburg when the April 1940 Census was conducted. He said he’d worked as a gas station attendant in 1939, earning $720. 

He was back in Cave Junction when he re-enlisted in the Navy on Nov. 25, 1940. He was a pharmacist’s mate 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.

Sources: The News-Review of Roseburg, Oregon; Evangelical Lutheran Church in America baptism record; U.S. Headstone Application for Military Veterans; Navy enlistment records. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.