WW2 Pearl Harbor Fallen - Arthur Grandpre, USS Oklahoma

Fireman Arthur Grandpre served on the USS Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor. His brother Jack was a crew mate who survived.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/73730050/arthur-matthew-grandpre
https://www.pbs.org/show/pearl-harbor-uss-oklahoma-final-story/

Arthur Matthew Grandpre never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.

If you have enjoyed reading the stories of the WW2 fallen, I invite you to help write some!  Announcing "The Stories Behind the Stars", see https://www.storiesbehindthestars.org.. This crowd-sourced national project has the goal of compiling stories of all 400,000+ of the US World War 2 fallen in one free-to-access central database.  Anyone visiting a war memorial or gravesite will be able to scan the name of the fallen with a smartphone and his story will appear on the phone.

He was born on March 13, 1920 in Conde, South Dakota. His parents Arthur and Anna were born in South Dakota and Wisconsin, respectively. His father worked as a farmer. Arthur had three older brothers, two older sisters, three younger brothers and two younger sisters.

He enlisted in the navy in June 1940. His younger brother Jack joined a few months later. Both were assigned to the battleship USS Oklahoma. Arthur was a fireman, second class.

Oklahoma steamed from San Fransisco to Hawaii in October 1941. On the morning of December 7, 1941 Oklahoma was one of the first ships attacked by the Japanese bombers when three torpedoes struck the ship between 0756 and 0800. An inspection was scheduled for the next day so many of the watertight doors were opened to allow easy access for the crew getting ready for the inspection. It made the ship take on water much quicker than otherwise and roll over.

After the ship capsized, rescue efforts were able to save 32 trapped men. Arthur did not survive the attack. He was one of 429 men from Oklahoma killed in the Pearl Harbor attack.

Brother Jack survived the sinking of Oklahoma and the rest of the war. He died in 2004.

Fireman Grandpre's grave is at Saint Johns Cemetery in Conde, South Dakota.

Thank you Fireman Grandpre for your sacrifice. Let's Earn It for Arthur.

Last year on this date I profiled Doolittle Raider, Distinguished Flying Cross hero, and B-25 engineer Donald Fitzmaurice. You can read about Donald here.

On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!

I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.

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WW2 Fallen 100 is supported by

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“Where Every Day is Memorial Day”