In Memory of Navy F 3C
George William Jarding
Emery, South Dakota
Hanson County
July 21, 1922 -- December 7, 1941
Killed in Action during the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor
George William Jarding was born July 21, 1922, in Emery, South Dakota, to Carl and Anna Jarding. George had four brothers and six sisters. His younger sister, Helen Marie, wrote, “He was a happy loving blue eyed blonde haired boy and was liked by everyone.” George was schooled at St. Martin’s Catholic School for his first eight years, during which time he served as an altar boy; he later graduated from Emery High School in 1940, having participated in band and choir. He is remembered for his bass voice because he sang in the church, school, and then the adult choir. After graduation, George attended Notre Dame Junior College at Mitchell for part of a year before joining the service.
George enlisted in the Navy and hoped to serve for twenty years and then finish his college education. Because he had enlarged tonsils, George was initially turned down by the Navy. He then had a tonsillectomy and consequently passed the exam. George trained at Great Lakes, Illinois, in March of 1941, and then returned home on a short leave. Upon returning to the service, F3 Jarding was transferred to Dearborn, Michigan, for machinist school at the Ford Motor Company, from which he graduated on September 3, 1941.
Only one week later F3 George Jarding sailed on the battleship Oklahoma, headed for Pearl Harbor where he was to be stationed. George talked of constant maneuvers and all the noise in his letters home to family. Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7, 1941, and the Oklahoma received massive damage. George’s family didn’t find out until a telegram on December 23, 1941, arrived, stating that their son had been missing in action since the 7th of December. The Jarding family held out hope that George had survived Pearl Harbor, but in February of 1942, Navy Fireman 3/C George William Jarding was officially declared dead. He was only 19 years old when he perished on the Oklahoma.
The family believes that George, although a Fireman 3/C whose battle station was an antiaircraft gun, was working in the kitchen of the Oklahoma at the time of the bombing raid. This assignment would have placed George either in the boiler room or way below the deck when the Japanese sank the ship.
Some years after the war was over, George’s parents received a letter stating that George’s remains had been identified in a grave at Punch Bowl Crater Cemetery in Honolulu, Hawaii. George’s father had his son’s remains returned to the United States in August of 1949. George was then laid to rest in St. Ann’s Cemetery at Humboldt, SD.
George W. Jarding was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart for “military merit and for wounds received in action.” He also was awarded the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, American Defense Service Medal, and WW II Victory Medal.
This entry was respectfully submitted by Mike Knutson, 8th Grade West, Spearfish Middle School, Spearfish, South Dakota, November 13, 2000. Information for this entry was provided by Mrs. Helen Marie Sieverding, Humboldt, South Dakota, sister of Navy F 3C George W. Jarding.
