James Mitchell Lindsay was born in June 1918 in Linden, Marengo County, Alabama, to John M. and Carrie Drummond Lindsay. He was the eldest of two brothers. According to the 1940 census, the family was living in Holyoke, Phillips County, Colorado.

Lindsay (service number 2721622) enlisted in the U.S. Navy on 21 September 1937 and was on board the USS Arizona (BB-39) on 8 March 1938. His rank was Shipfitter* (SF) 2c.

According to Wikipedia, the Arizona underwent an overhaul at Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington, between October 1940 and January 1941. On 7 December 1941, the Arizona was anchored at Pearl Harbor. Five Japanese torpedo bombers attached the ship, scoring “four hits and three near misses.” The last bomb detonated the forward magazines on the ship, killing “1,177 of the 1,512 crewmen on board at the time.”

SF 2c Lindsay was declared missing after the attack and later awarded the Purple Heart. His name is included on the Honolulu Memorial Tablets of the missing at the U.S. National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (Punchbowl). He was survived by his mother, a brother and his wife and son.

*Shipfitter duties include using hand and machine tools for steel and metal work; bending, repairing and fitting pipes; and operating fire extinguishers and rescue breathing equipment.

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.

Story by LeAnn Stelzer