- Rank:
- Branch:
- Home Town:
- Date Of Birth:
- Disposition:
- Family DNA on File:
BKR2c Robert Arnold Hibbard
Robert Arnold Hibbard was born Oct. 14, 1917 at Manchester, Kentucky.
His father, Joseph Hibbard, was a farmer and his mother, Addie Wolfe Hibbard, a homemaker.
Robert attended Felts High School in Corbin, Kentucky, through the 10th grade.
Robert and his brother Walter, who was two years younger, enlisted in the Navy on Dec. 16, 1935. They went aboard the U.S.S. Arizona together in April 1936. Walter was later transferred to other ships.
Robert was a baker and petty officer second class on the Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.
Tragedy struck again on Dec. 30, 1943, when Walter died of cancer at a Navy hospital in New York. They share a grave marker and cenotaph at McFarland Cemetery in Corbin, Kentucky.
Their brother Earl served in the Marines and survived the war.
Sources: The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Kentucky; Census; Navy enlistment records and muster roll; Kentucky birth index; markers at McFarland Cemetery; New York death certificate. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.