S2c Roy Arthur Gager,
- Home /
- S2c Roy Arthur Gager,
- Rank:
- Branch:
- Home Town:
- Date Of Birth:
- Disposition:
- Family DNA on File:
S2c Roy Arthur Gager
Roy Arthur Gager was born in Texas on Aug. 13, 1922 to Herman Gager and Winnie Cox Gager.
By 1930 the family was living in Kansas, where the father worked as a railroad laborer and the mother was a homemaker.
Roy attended Topeka High School and enlisted in the Navy on Oct. 14, 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.
An older brother, Orvale, had died just two months earlier. And the father was killed by lightning in May 1942 while working at Topeka Army Air Field.
Three other brothers also served in the military — Harold in the Navy in World War II, Vernon in the Navy from 1947 to 1957, and Ralph in the Army from 1945 to 1946.
Sources: The Emporia (Kansas) Gazette; the Topeka Daily Capital story and photo; Census; Navy muster roll; grave markers at Rochester Cemetery in Topeka; Topeka High School yearbook. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.