John Junior Fess joined the Navy to learn diesel engineering. He achieved his goal, studying in a Navy program in San Diego in 1941.

He visited his family in Torrance, California that October and then headed to Hawaii and back to the U.S.S. Arizona, where he was a fireman first class. He was killed on Dec. 7, 1941 in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Mr. Fess was born in Torrance on Sept. 14, 1920 to John H. Fess, a Canadian immigrant who worked for the fire department and later in parks maintenance, and Persia Shugg Fess, a practical nurse. He had one older brother.

Mr. Fess graduated in 1938 from Torrance High, where he played varsity basketball and tennis. He also played the piano. He worked as a pin setter at a bowling alley in Hermosa Beach. He attended a trade school in Los Angeles and worked as a linotyper at the Burbank Post. He enlisted on June 13, 1939.