WO(MACH) Edward Winter
- Rank: Machinist's Mate
- Serial No: 100905
- Branch: US Navy Reserve
- Home Town: Winlock, WA
- Date Of Birth: July 6, 1908
- Disposition: Unrecovered
- Family DNA on File:
WO(MACH) Edward Winter
Edward Winter was born July 6, 1908 in Castle Rock, a town of about 1,000 in southwest Washington. His mother, Julianna Ziertz Winter, was a homemaker, and his father, Adolph Winter, a farmer and later a steam engine mechanic. The parents were Russian immigrants.
Edward graduated from Johnson High School in Winlock, Washington, in 1927 and enlisted in the Navy in January 1929. He completed the Navy’s training school for machinists at 1930 in Virginia.
He was honorably discharged in October 1936 and went to work for Southern California Edison doing construction and operation of hydroelectric generators. He told the Navy left left because of “domestic troubles” but that his wife died before he re-enlisted in March 1941.
He was a machinist and warrant officer on the U.S.S. Arizona, assigned to the Boiler Room and was the Assistant to the Engineering Officer when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.
About four months before Mr. Winter’s death, the captain of the Arizona, Franklin Van Valkenburgh, had written to the chief of the Bureau of Navigation recommending that he be promoted to the rank of lieutenant, junior grade. The letter said:
“Mr. Winter reported for duty in the Arizona on April 26, 1941. In the interval since April his performance of duty has been such as to repeatedly bring him to my favorable attention. He is professionally well qualified for engineering duty and is entirely capable of performing any engineering duty commensurate with the rank of Lieutenant (junior grade). In addition to his professional ability as an engineer he has to a marked degree the quality of leadership, and his loyalty and cooperation are outstanding.”
The promotion did not go through before both Mr. Winter and Mr. Van Valkenburg were killed at Pearl Harbor.
At least three of Mr. Winter’s brothers also served in the military — Julius and Martin in the Army during World War I, and Henry in the Coast Guard between World War I and World War II.
Sources: The News Tribune of Tacoma, Washington; the Chehalis (Washington) Bee Nugget; the Longview (Washington) Daily News; The Daily Chronicle of Centralia, Washington; Census; 1940 military registration card; U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs death file; grave markers. Navy enlistment records and photograph. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.