Comments/Citation:
Warrant Officer Pay Clerk John E. Lake was born on Oct. 22, 1910, in Chicago, IL, to John Ervin Lake Sr (1888-), a lawyer, and, Clara Belle Barron (1887-1923), a homemaker. John had one sister, Clara Belle (Brazier/Stewart) (1913-1995), and two brothers, Charles Wood (1915-1979), and Alfred W (1919-).
His family moved to Oskaloosa City, Iowa, where his mother died of a malignancy when John Jr. was 12. His father remarried to a Vera Smith (1885-1983).
John enlisted in the Navy on April 13, 1928 but little documentation exists of John’s early career assignments. In 1936, John met a Dorothy Jane Cochrane (1916-1989) while stationed in Los Angeles, California. As early as 1937, the San Pedro News Pilot newspaper referenced his assignment to the cruiser USS Astoria (CA-34) in a Notice of Intention to Marry article. The ship was homeported out of San Pedro, On February 17, 1937, he married Dorothy in San Pedro, California.
John advanced through the enlisted ranks and ship records show that he re-enlisted in the Navy in October 1937 as a Storekeeper First Class (SK1c). City records recorded the Lake family living in San Diego in 1938 to 1940. They had two boys, John Ervin III (1938-) and Martin Wesley (1941-).
In late June 1940, ship records show that John was a passenger on USS Enterprise (CV-6) enroute to his new assignment on USS Salt Lake City (CA-25) which was on an overseas deployment between Pearl Harbor and the Western Pacific Islands. He reported onboard USS Salt Lake City on July 2, 1940 while Dorothy and his namesake son lived with her parents in San Pedro, CA. On September 14, 1940, he was selected and issued an Acting appointment to Warrant Officer and soon after was transferred to USS Arizona homeported out of Pearl Harbor on September 20, 1940 as a Pay Clerk and an assistant to the ship’s Supply Officer. He stayed with the ship when she went through overhaul at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington, from October 1940 to January 1941. After the ship returned to Pearl Harbor, John finally was able to take leave to visit his pregnant wife and son in June 1941. He was hoping to be home again for Christmas to see his newborn son. In addition, Dorothy had already planned ad booked passage on a cruise ship to Honolulu for February 1942 to be with her husband.
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 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.
WO(PYCLK) Lake was lost in the attack on the USS Arizona (BB-39). Initially he was reported as Missing in Action (MIA) and later was reported as Killed In Action (KIA). John’s remains were never recovered and remain entombed on the USS Arizona among the 900+ souls still onboard. He was awarded a Purple Heart Medal and other awards posthumously. His name is also engraved at the USS Arizona Memorial and the Court of the Missing at Honolulu Memorial. He left behind a widow and two small sons -- one he had never met -- when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.
After John’s death, a destroyer escort, the USS Lake, was named in his honor. It was commissioned in February 1944 and served throughout the Pacific. The ship earned two battle stars. It was sold for scrap in 1946.
John’s younger brother, Charles, served in the Army National Guard as a sergeant in WWII.
This profile was researched and written on behalf of the USS Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.
Sources: San Pedro (California) News Pilot; Los Angeles Times; Wilmington Daily Press Journal (California); Census, Navy muster roll; Illinois birth certificate; Iowa death record; Naval History and Heritage Command.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56122742/john-e-lake
https://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=359562
http://www.ussarizona.org/index.php/features/lists/uss-arizona-casualty-list/987-lake-john-ervin-jr
https://speccoll.library.arizona.edu/online-exhibits/exhibits/show/uss-arizona/service#top
www.ibiblio.org/phha/arizona/history.html#pearlharbor
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