McGrady, Samme Willie Genes, Matt1c

This Military Service Page was created by Felix Cervantes, III (Admiral Ese), BM2

Mess Attendant/1c Samme McGrady was Killed in Action on December 7, 1941, during the attack on Pearl Harbor.  He was stationed aboard the USS Arizona BB39.

Service number: 2722522

Samme Willie Genes McGrady was born March 12, 1919, in Pike County in southeast Alabama.  His father, Willie McGrady, was a farmer and his mother, Mary (Boswell) McGrady, a homemaker.  Samme, sometimes identified as Samuel or Sammie, was the fourth of seven children.

Samme McGrady enlisted in the U. S. Navy on December 11, 1939, Service #2722522, as a mess attendant first class (MATT1c).  MATT1c McGrady was African-American, which meant that only one branch of service, mess attendant, was open to him in the segregated U. S. Navy.  Mess attendants cooked, cleaned and performed other services.  He was prohibited from advancing to a job with higher skill and pay.

MATT1c McGrady was assigned to the battleship USS Arizona and reported for duty on March 29, 1940.  He was aboard the USS Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

At the onset of the December 7, 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 8:00 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 an 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.

MATT1c Samme W. G. McGrady is listed as Missing in Action or Buried at Sea.  He is listed on the “Courts of the Missing” at the Honolulu Memorial and remembered at the USS Arizona Memorial; both are in Honolulu, Honolulu County, Hawaii.  He was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

In 1948 President Harry Truman signed an executive order abolishing segregation in the military, but it wasn’t until the end of the Korean War in 1953 that most branches were integrated.

A short article in April 1950 in The Troy Messenger reported that the newly organized Samuel W. McGrady American Legion Post 325 was planning an evening of boxing matches in the Academy Street High School gym.  The newspaper referred to Post 325 as “colored” and said there would be “reserved seats for white persons” at the event.

The Academy Street school opened in the early 1920s to serve African-American elementary students, and in 1941, became a high school.  It was segregated until 1971.

This information was researched and written on behalf of the USS Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.

SOURCES:
The Troy Messenger
Alabama News Center
The Anderson (Indiana) Herald Bulletin
U. S. Veterans Administration Master Index
Census Records
Navy Muster Roll
https://pearlharbor.org/facts-uss-arizona-bb-39/
http://www.ibiblio.org/phha/arizona/history.html#pearlharbor