Gunner’s Mate First Class Jay Edgar Alley, United States Navy, Service Number: 2618766

Early Life
Jay Edgar Alley was born in 1917 in Mooresville, Iredell County, North Carolina. (Some records list his DOB as 31 March 1905). His nickname was "Jay Bird". His father, Lonnie Edgar Alley, born 22 February 1891 in North Carolina, died 31 July 1969 in Mooresville, Iredell County, North Carolina, was a farmer. His mother, Patsy Agnes Hager was born on 15 February 1894 in Iredell County, North Carolina and died on 10 June 1958 in Mooresville, Iredell County, North Carolina. Jay’s parents were married on 20 April 1913 in Iredell County, North Carolina. Jay was the second of seven children in the family; he had an older sister, one younger brother and four younger sisters. After Patsy’s death, Lonnie later married Fodie Robertson.

Military
Jay Edgar Alley enlisted in the U.S. Navy in about 1934. After boot camp and additional follow-on training, he was ultimately assigned to the USS Arizona (BB-39) which was stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

At the onset of the 07 December 1941 attack, the battleship USS Arizona (BB-39) was moored at berth Fox 7 on “Battleship Row.” The repair ship Vestal (AR-4) was on the port side, and the starboard side faced the northeastern shore of Ford Island. Just before 8 am, the ship’s air raid alarm sounded and the crew was ordered to general quarters. During the attack the battleship was struck by as many as eight aerial bombs, including one 1,700 lb. armor-piercing shell which penetrated the deck near the Number 2 turret and detonated in the smokeless powder magazine, causing a “cataclysmic” explosion “which destroyed the ship forward” and ignited a fire which burned for two days. Most of the Arizona crewmen who perished in the attack died instantly during the explosion. The ship quickly sank to the bottom of the harbor along with 1,177 of the 1,512 personnel on board, representing about half the total number of Americans killed that day.

Death and Burial
Jay Edgar Alley was declared Missing in Action, Lost At Sea, Non Recoverable (Killed in Action) on 7 December 1941 aboard the USS Arizona during the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart Medal. He was memorialized in the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Honolulu County, Hawaii.

A story about Jay receiving the Purple Heart on Page 3 of the 14 June 1943 issue of "The Landmark" published in Statesville, North Carolina, states that Jay lived in Mooresville, NC. According to POW/MIA and Birth records on AncestryInstute.com, Jay's birth date is 01 FEB 1916. An obituary on Jay's Findagrave site states that Jay was 27 at the time he went missing on December 7th which, if true, would place the birth year in 1914 or 1915. None of these sources have a definitive birth date or where a birth date is given. The corresponding first and last name (surname only) is shown (including on Vital Records and census records), so this row shows only the given birth year of 1917.

Sources
https://www.fold3.com/page/529989372/jay-edgar-alley

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7884750/jay-edgar-alley

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56108688/jay-edgar-alley

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7884750/jay-edgar-alley

https://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=78348

https://navy.togetherweserved.com/usn/servlet/tws.webapp.WebApp?cmd=Profile&type=Person&ID=299676

https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000BStfEAG

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/81316352/the-news-and-observer/

https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/63889170/person/182014991544/facts?_phsrc=5ru-1096565&_phstart=successSource

********This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see https://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 Together We Served and 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 person's name and read his/her story.
If you have any details, photos, or corrections for this story, please email me by clicking on my name.
CDR Robert "Red" Mulvanny-Contributing Author, Stories Behind the Stars

Alley, Jay Edgar, GM1c