S1c Milton Henry Davis

Milton Henry Davis was born March 4, 1920 in Holton, Kansas, a town of about 2,700 in the northeast part of the state.

His birth name was Joseph Henry Hidy and his parents were John Hidy and Martha Alkire Hidy. He was adopted in July 1922 by another Holton couple, Walter F. and Mary E. Davis, and his name was changed to Milton Henry Davis.

Milton completed 10th grade at Holton High in 1939 and worked for two years as a farmhand. He also served in 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.

Milton enlisted in the Navy on November 1939 in Kansas City Missouri and completed his basic training at Great Lakes Naval Training Station in Illinois. The Great Depression was still bearing down on Holton. His father reported earning $312 for 52 weeks of work in 1939. Neighbors — a dentist, housekeeper, welder, salesman, and barber — each reported earning $0 in 1939.

Milton reported aboard the USS Arizona on February 10, 1940.  He wrote home from the U.S.S. Arizona in late November 1941 that he liked the Navy life and work. His parents expected him home soon on leave and had redecorated the house in preparation.

That was not to be. Their son was killed on Dec. 7, 1941, in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He was a seaman first class.

A granite cenotaph with his name was placed by his parents in 1942 at the Holton Cemetery.