S1c Milton Paul Jr. Dobey

Milton Paul Dobey Jr. was born on Christmas 1921 in Dallas, Texas. His mother, Harriet Thomason Dobey, was a homemaker and his father worked in the wholesale department of the Sanger Brothers dry goods store.

By 1930 the family had moved to Houston, where the father worked as a machinist. The family, which included a younger son, was still in Houston in the spring of 1940. Milton junior had completed three years of high school, the Census reported.

He was in the Reserve Officer Training Corps program at Stephen F. Austin High School in Houston, achieving the rank of first lieutenant.

Mr. Dobey enlisted in the Navy on April 10, 1940, and 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.

Sources: the Houston Chronicle; Texas birth record; Census; Navy muster roll. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.