James Edward Luna was born Jan. 7, 1922 at Russellville, Alabama. His father, Joseph Luna, was a farmer and his mother, Mary Stout Luna, a homemaker. The parents were also Franklin County natives. The family included one other child, a daughter born in 1924.

By early 1930 the family lived in or near the small town of Newburg about 10 miles east of Russellville, the county seat. James attended school there through the 10th grade.

He 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. He served in Co. 3490 at Houston Mississippi.

James Luna enlisted in the Navy on Oct. 5, 1940. He was a seaman second class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

His father was an Army private from July 1918 through March 1919.

Sources: Census; grave markers; the Ellensburg (Washington) Daily Record; Defense Department; Navy enlistment records and muster roll. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.