S1c Douglas Carlton Moore

James Carlton Moore and his nephew Douglas Carlton Moore enlisted in the Navy together on Nov. 28, 1939.

Both men died on the U.S.S. Arizona on Dec. 7, 1941 in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

James was born May 8, 1918 in Tiger, Georgia, to James Clayton Moore, a cotton mill worker, and Dorsie Johnson Moore, a homemaker. They had at least 10 other children. One of them was Garnett, the father of Douglas Carlton Moore.

James was 10 when his father died of pneumonia. He, a brother and their mother soon moved to Anderson, South Carolina.

He completed 9th grade and then became a textile worker.

His nephew Douglas was born Oct. 6, 1921 in Anderson. His mother, Pearl Blair Moore, died when he was five of heart and kidney infections, complicated by a cesarean birth. His father married Cecelia Gunnin Moore in January 1928.

Douglas attended Anderson Boys’ High School through 8th grade, then worked at a textile mill. His father and step-mother worked in the weave shop of a cotton mill, according to the 1940 Census.

James was known in Anderson as a baseball player in the mill leagues, while Douglas had a reputation as a pool shooter. 

James was a shipfitter and petty officer third class when he died. Douglas was a seaman first class.

Sources: The Greenville (South Carolina) News; Census; Navy enlistment records muster roll; grave marker; Social Security death index.; Defense Department; Veterans Administration; South Carolina death certificates. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.