Two of the three Murdock brothers serving on the U.S.S. Arizona were killed aboard the battleship on Dec 7, 1941 when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor — Charles Luther and Melvin Elijah. Their older brother, Thomas Daniel, survived because he lived on shore with his wife.

The family was from the small unincorporated town of Henagar in northeast Alabama. Their father, Charles W., was a farmer, and their mother, Sletie Rains, a homemaker. Charles W.’s obituary says he was also a minister.

Thomas, born in Sept. 21, 1908, in nearby Grove Oak, enlisted in the Navy in 1930. Luther, who went by his middle name, was born July 10, 1916, also Grove Oak, and enlisted on Dec. 17, 1934. Melvin, born Oct. 19, 1918, in the same county as Grove Oak, enlisted on April 25, 1938.

All three brothers attended school at Henagar, though it doesn’t appear they stayed long enough to graduate. Charles worked for seven months at Arundel Corp., a dredging and construction firm in Mobile, before he enlisted.

Luther and Melvin were watertenders on the Arizona. Luther was a petty officer first class and Melvin second class. The older brother, Thomas, was a chief yeoman. He continued to serve in the war on other ships. He died in 1979.

Luther had dinner with Thomas and his wife, Ruth, the night before the attack. They invited him to stay overnight, but he chose to return to the ship.

In her book Dekalb County Veterans, author Julia Brown writes that after the attack, Navy divers found nothing belonging to the Murdock brothers in the sunken ship. So Thomas went down himself and from his brothers’ lockers recovered a bowling ball, pocket knife, scissors, and a shaving mug.

Shortly before his death, Melvin sent a kid brother $25 to buy a bicycle. Charles sent $25 a month for his parents to buy an electric refrigerator. That was more than a quarter of his monthly pay.

Sources: Census; Navy enlistment records and muster rolls; Arizona marriage license; Alabama Media Group; “Dekalb County Veterans” by Julia Brown. The photo is from the Arizona State Library Archives. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.