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S1c Virgil Simon Off
Virgil Simon Off was born May 11, 1911 in Colorado, possibly in Del Norte, 1910 population 840, on the Rio Grande about 45 miles north of New Mexico. His mother, Mary Ann Robran Off, was a homemaker and his father, Simon Christian Off, a farmer. Both were Colorado natives.
By 1920 the family lived 30 miles to the southeast in Alamosa, a south-central town of about 3,000. The growing family, which eventually included 11 children, was still in Alamosa in April 1930. By then Virgil was a farm hand.
He enlisted in the Navy on Dec. 13, 1939. Mr. Off was a seaman first class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.
Sources: The American Fork (Utah) Citizen; Del Norte (Colorado) Prospector; Census; Navy muster roll; Veterans Administration. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.