Walter Arnold Vojta was born Nov. 1, 1921 in Minneapolis, Minnesota near to Frank U. Vojta, a farmer, and Anne J. Hendrickson Vojta, a homemaker.

By 1930 the father owned a farm in Brunswick Township about 50 miles north of Minneapolis. By April 1935 the sons were attending school roughly eight miles to the northwest in Ogilvie.

The parents divorced in 1939 and by April 1940 Walter and his brother, Francis, who was a year older, were living as lodgers in Minneapolis. Their mother was working as a maid. Walter complete 12th grade at West High School in 1940.

He also served in the Civilian Conservation Corps, a Depression-era federal jobs program.  The CCC, as it was known, employed single men 18 to 25 to plant trees, build roads and trails and make other improvements to public land, forests and parks. The men lived at camps across the country and were provided a bed and three meals a day. Of their $30 monthly pay, $25 was sent to their families. He served in Co. 719 near Brimson, Minnesota.

Walter enlisted in the Navy on Oct. 30, 1940. He was a seaman first class when he was killed on the U.S.S. Arizona in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

By then, Francis was a corporal at a National Guard camp in Louisiana. He left for North Africa in January 1942 and fought in Tunisia and Italy. Francis earned the Silver Star for his service in World War II. He also served in Korea and retired as a lieutenant colonel.

Sources: The Star Tribune of Minneapolis; Census; Navy enlistment records and muster roll; Fort Snelling National Cemetery; Minnesota Historical Society’s birth records index. Navy photograph. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.