Harry George McIntosh was born June 8, 1920 in San Leandro, California. His father, George McIntosh, was a shipyard laborer and his mother, Lou Anna Lansdown McIntosh, a homemaker.

The father died about 1926. The mother married Tude Letterman in 1928. The 1930 Census said the couple lived in 200 miles to the southeast in Visalia in the San Joaquin Valley with one child, George H. Letterman, identified as a step-son. Based on the boy’s age, that was Harry George.

His mother died three days before his 12th birthday.

Harry George attended Visalia High School from 1935-39 but did not graduate. The spring 1940 Census said he lived with an older sister, Lou Etta Ikerd, and her husband, who were identified as his guardians. Around that time, Harry George worked as a janitor at Three Rivers, California, for Co. 915 of the Civilian Conservation Corps, a Depression-era jobs program for young men. The CCC 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.

Mr. McIntosh enlisted in the Navy on Halloween 1940. He 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.

At least two of his brothers, Ernest and Auldon, also served during World War II.

Sources: the Visalia (California) Times-Delta; the Tulare (California) County Times; The Hanford (California) Sentinel; Visalia High School yearbook; Census; Navy enlistment records and muster roll; U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs death files; California death index; California marriage index; Defense Department. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.