James Albert Gray killed at Pearl Harbor (1941)

On December 7, 1941, Americans were shaken by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, an attack so devastating that it sent us directly into World War II. President Franklin Roosevelt described it as "A date that will live in infamy," a description that has endured. Anacortes resident James Albert Gray was aboard the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, and became the first of many from Anacortes to die in the worldwide conflict. A member of Anacortes High School’s class of 1941, Gray had dropped out to join the Navy in 1940. Local photographer and historian Wallie Funk ruminated on Gray's choice, "...his decision was that he would join the Navy and see the world, and now he is part of the eternal monu