Carl James Estep -- Highland Cemetery, Melissa TX
N 33° 18.716 W 096° 34.168
14S E 726274 N 3688505
The memorial tombstone for Carl James Estep at Highland Cemetery, Melissa TX, reflects his heroic and tragic demise on board the USS ARIZONA on 7 Dec 1941 with 1117 of his shipmates
Waymark Code: WMX6Z3
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 12/05/2017
Views: 7
You never know what you will find in cemeteries.
The tombstone for Carl James Estep stands in the Estep family plot at peaceful Highland Cemetery, northeast of Melissa TX. It notes that he is entombed aboard the USS ARIZONA with 900 of his shipmates who died with him (and whose bodies also could not be recovered) during the attack on NAVBASE Pearl Harbor Hawaii on 7 Dec 1941, the "date that will live in infamy."
The tombstone reads as follows:
"In memory of
CARL JAMES ESTEP
1921-1941
Entombed on USS ARIZONA
Dec. 7 1941"
From the USS ARIZONA WEBSITE: (
visit link)
"ESTEP, CARL JAMES
S1c, USN
KIA USS ARIZONA (BB 39) 7 Dec 1941
Branch: United States Navy
Service Number: 356 31 39
Rate: S1/c (Seaman First Class)
Duties: Know naval drill duties, knots, steering and signaling. Stand watch and gunnery duties.
Enlisted: 30 July 1940
Place: Dallas, Texas
Onboard USS Arizona: 14 October 1940
From: NRS Bremerton, Washington
Date of Birth: Abt 1915
Place of Birth: New York
Hometown / State December 1941: Anna, Texas
Next of Kin: Mr. P. E. Estep - Father
Address: Anna, Texas
Disposition: Unrecoverable – Among the 900+ souls still onboard the USS Arizona
Posthumous Awards: Purple Heart, American Defense Service Medal w/Fleet Clasp, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal w/Star, WWII Victory Medal"
Blasterz, Navy veterans of the Persian Gulf War, are glad the Navy made posthumous awards of the WWII Victory Medal and the other campaign medals. S1/C Estep earned those, and we hope they brought comfort to his family.
We left pennies to show some shipmates visited.
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