Born 15 March 1922 at Toledo, Ohio to Vernon W Smalley, Sr and Gladys (Broderson) Smalley, Jack G Smalley was the youngest of four brothers. His oldest brother Nathaniel Smalley died in 1932 while in the Navy of pleurisy when Jack was 10 years old. His other brothers Vern Jr. and Bud Smalley also entered Naval service following their older brother, as the love for the sea ran steady through all four of the Smalley boys.

The early years of Jack Smalley were spent growing up near Lake Erie in the town of Toledo the son of a car salesman and a stay at home mother. The family attended the Plymouth Congregational Church near their home. According to brother Bud Smalley, he and Jack were very close even sharing a bed as youngsters since they were the two youngest siblings. He and his brother Jack used to make extra money by collecting scrap metal and by caddying at the nearby Heatherwood Country Club Golf Coarse. Jack attended Woodward High School in Toledo where he played on the freshman basketball team. Because of a rich family history of service to their country, the call of being a sailor in the US Navy soon became a priority over finishing school.

According to Navy enlistment papers, Jack enlisted at Detroit, Michigan April 2, 1940 and trained at the Great Lakes Naval Academy. After completing his training, Jack was received on board the USS Arizona August 6, 1940. His older brother Bud was also on board the USS Arizona at this time. The reunion of these brothers would last for nearly a year until Bud transferred to a ship in the Atlantic in the fall of 1941. Jack told Bud he would follow him soon but that time would never come.

On December 7, 1941, Japanese aircraft launched a surprise attack on the U.S. Navy base and ships at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The USS Arizona was struck by eight armor-piercing bombs. One bomb penetrated the USS Arizona's deck near its No. 2 turret, causing a large explosion that destroyed the forward half of the ship. The bomb started a fire that burned for two days. More than 1,100 sailors and Marines were lost along with the ship.

A December 7, 1997 article published in the Toledo Blade Newspaper, " When the first Japanese warplanes descended on Pearl Harbor the first Sunday of December 1941, they found Jack Smalley near his portside anti-aircraft gun on the naval leviathan that will forever be a part of U.S. history."

"One of the blasts rocked the battleships and killed Jack Smalley, sending his body into the rolling waters of Pearl Harbor. He was 17." Jack died from wounds received in action at Pearl Harbor.

News of Jack's death didn't reach his parents until December 12, 1941, according to a 1945 Toledo Blade news article marking the 4th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. Jack was one of 5 young men from Toledo who perished that day.

Jack's body was recovered and reinterred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (Section B Site 201) in Honolulu, HI on Jan 31, 1949.

AWARDS:

American Defense Service Medal

World War II Victory Medal

Purple Heart Medal

Maybe the best way to describe the type of young man Sea1C Jack G Smalley was is to know the mother who raised him, Mrs Gladys Smalley. After losing two of her sons in service to the the US Navy, Mrs Smalley immersed herself in war time efforts such as selling war bonds, serving sandwiches and refreshments at the USO, or knitting part of 200 afghan blankets which the Toledo Navy Mothers Club sent to servicemen. She also sewed chevrons and emblems on uniforms for the Toledo Naval Recruiting Station and sold Navy Day tags on the downtown streets for the serviceman’s rehabilitation fund.

Mrs Smalley was the director of the Toledo, Ohio Navy Mother’s Club, who provided money so that sailors broke in Toledo may have basic provisions.

In 1944, Mrs Gladys Smalley was named Gold Star Mother for Ohio at Cleveland. For this honor she was given a $100 War Bond from Gov. Frank J. Lausche.

Her husband Vern Smalley said, “ I guess that doing all the work she can for servicemen and organizations and for the bond drives is Mom’s (Gladys) way of showing how she feels about Jack.”

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org).)) This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smartphone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

Sources:

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=8_tS2Vw13FcC&dat=19451207&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=1122&h=104003&tid=178937609&pid=392332508846&hid=1012035298585

Ohio Department of Health, Index to Annual Births, 1968-1998; Ohio Department of Health, State Vital Statistics Unit; Columbus, OH, USA

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/3792649/jack-g-smalley

Findagrave.com contributor: Jeff Eck-London

Fold3.com

Toledo Blade Newspaper Archives on google