FC2c Richard Henry Eulberg

Businesses closed the morning of Richard Henry Eulberg’s memorial service at St. Joseph Catholic Church so that everyone in Garnavillo, Iowa, population 461, could attend.

Mr. Eulberg was a fire controlman and petty officer second class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed Dec. 7, 1941 in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Known as Dick, he was born in Garnavillo Feb. 28, 1918, to Henry J. Eulberg, a German immigrant, and Elsie M. Bittner Eulberg. The father worked at a lumberyard and the mother was a homemaker.

The son joined the Navy on March 9, 1938.

Three of his brothers also served in the war and survived. One of them, Donald, an Army private, was captured by the Germans in Tunisia in early 1943 and held as a POW for more than two years.

Sources: Garnavillo (Iowa) Tribune; Guttenberg (Iowa) Press; Clayton County Register of Elkader, Iowa; Census; Navy muster roll; U.S. Department of Defense. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.