Richard Henry Wallenstien, “Dick” was born November 17, 1923 in Chehalis in west-central Washington to Julius C. Wallenstine and Charlotte Nana Stevens Wallenstein.

The son’s Navy records and cenotaph say he was Wallenstien. The grave of his father, an Army mechanic in World War I, says Wallenstine. And his mother’s grave says Wallenstein.

When Richard was about six the family, including an older brother, moved to Rawlins, Wyoming . The father worked in a sawmill and the mother was a homemaker. She died in February 1934 when Richard was 10. The father remarried in about 1938.

The father and his sons stayed in Rawlins. Richard attended Rawlins High School, completing two grades, and enlisted in the Navy on Dec. 13, 1940 in Seattle, Washington.

On April 26, 1941, Dick reported for duty aboard the USS Arizona. Less than a year later he was a seaman first class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. 

The 1942 Rawlins High yearbook said he graduated in 1941. “His cheerful attitude and vigor cannot be forgotten by any of those who knew him,” the yearbook said. “For Richard is one of that staggering number of great Americans whose names, though not in our history books, will live in our hearts forever.”

Sources: Photo: Rawlins HS yearbook 1941. the Rawlins (Wyoming) Republican;  Rawlins Cemetery markers; Census; Navy enlistment records and muster roll; Rawlins High yearbook; California death record; Los Angeles National Cemetery. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona and Operation 85.