Years of service 1940-1941 Awards Purple Heart | Name Julius Ellsberry Service/branch United States Navy | |
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Allegiance United States of America Rank Mess Attendant, First Class Wars World War II
Attack on Pearl Harbor † Died December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor, Honolulu County, Hawaii, Hawaii, United States | ||
Julius Ellsberry (1922 — December 7, 1941) was the first Alabamian killed in World War II, and one of the first Americans to die in the Pacific during World War II.
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Early life
Ellsberry was born in Birmingham, Alabama and was a 1938 graduate of Parker High School.
Military career
Ellsberry enlisted in the United States Navy in 1940, and was serving aboard the USS Oklahoma (BB-37) as a Mess Attendant First Class when it was bombed by Japanese planes in the surprise attack on December 7, 1941. He and 413 other crewmen were killed aboard the battleship. He was awarded a posthumous Purple Heart in honor of his sacrifice.
A Navy press release followed shortly after the announcement of Ellsberry's death describing the heroism of another black seaman, then unidentified. Mess Attendant Second Class Doris Miller assumed control of a deck gun on the USS West Virginia (BB-48) after the gunner was killed and helped defend the ship. Media reports at the time often credited Ellsberry with Miller's heroism and the misidentification still sometimes persists.
Legacy
The Birmingham World labeled Ellsberry "the Crispus Attucks of World War II". Birmingham's Black community raised over $300,000 in war bond purchases toward the completion of a B-24 Liberator named The Spirit of Ellsberry.
Birmingham's Ellsberry Park near Finley Boulevard north of downtown was dedicated in his honor in 1979. A marker honoring Ellsberry's sacrifice has also been erected in Kelly Ingram Park, which is named for fellow Navy veteran and Birmingham native Osmond Kelly Ingram, the first American killed in World War I.