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Casualty Info
Home Town Los Angeles, CA
Last Address USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor.
Casualty Date Dec 07, 1941
Cause KIA-Killed in Action
Reason Other Explosive Device
Location Hawaii
Conflict World War II
Location of Interment USS ARIZONA (BB-39) - Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
Petty Officer Second Class Wesly Heidt was Killed in Action on December 7, 1941, during the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was stationed aboard the USS Arizona (BB-39).
***PETTY OFFICER SECOND CLASS WESLEY HEIDT HAD A TWIN BROTHER, EDWARD HEIDT, WHO WAS ALSO STATIONED ABOARD THE USS ARIZONA AND WAS KILLED IN ACTION ON DECEMBER 7, 1941.***
Comments/Citation:
MM2c Wesley John Heidt served in the US Navy aboard the USS Arizona during WW2. He was stationed on board with his older brother Edward. They were 1 of 38 sets of brothers serving together on board the ship. Wesley and his brother were killed during the D-Day attack on Pearl Harbor 7 Dec 1941.
Wesley John Heidt was born 17 May 1917. He, his brother Edward and 2 sisters Julia and Louise were born and raised near Los Angeles in sunny California. He attended High School at Inglewood, and then Leuzinger where he played football with his older brother.
His mother Genevieve (née Lombardi) was born in Pennsylvania about 1897. Her parents immigrated from Italy. His father George Heidt (1895-1963) was born in California and worked for the Los Angeles Times as a stenotyper. The couple married 20 Jan 1914 in Los Angeles. They divorced in the 1920’s.. Both remarried and remained in CA. He and his siblings lived with his mom and stepfather, Arthur Dunlap.
MM2c Wesley John Heidt enlisted 13 Sep 1939 and was stationed aboard the USS Vestal AR-4 on 18 Nov 1939. His duties as Machinist’s Mate in WW2 would have included working on machinery that provided the ship’s propulsion and power. He would operate and repair the ship’s engines; as well drainage systems, pumps and evaporators.
At some point during his 2 years of service he was stationed with his brother Edward on the USS AZ. They served along with 37 other sets of brothers on the ship. 24 families lost multiple loved ones on D-Day when the USS Arizona was attacked. The Heidt family was doubly bereaved.
On the morning of 7 December 1941, a fleet of Japanese carriers launched an airstrike against the U.S. Pacific Fleet at anchor in Pearl Harbor, on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. The attack decimated the ships and personnel of the fleet and thrust the United States into World War II. At the onset of the 7 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 was 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.
MM2c Heidt was MIA and later declared KIA. His remains were not recovered from the sea. Wesley was 24 years old. He was unmarried and had no known children.
Heidt is memorialized at the USS Arizona Memorial; Cenotaph - Courts of the Missing, Honolulu Memorial, National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
US Navy MM2cc Wesley John Heidt was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart, American Defense Service Medal w/Fleet Clasp, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal w/Star, WWII Victory Medal.
