Accompanying the name "Henry Stokes Hayden" on the December 2, 1942, Watsonville Register-Pajaronian Roll of
Honor, was the comment, "Missing in Alaska."

Selective Service Records indicate that Henry Hayden was born in New Jersey in 1920. No information is available as to his birth, family or formative years. Enlistment records indicate that he had completed four years of high school, was single and worked as a photographer. It is not known when he arrived in the Pajaro Valley, nor by whom he was employed.

While residing in Santa Cruz County, he enlisted as a private in the 250th Coastal Artillery National Guard. On September 16, 1940, the unit was mustered into federal service and stationed at Camp McQuaide near Watsonville. At the camp Private Hayden was trained to be a coastal
artillerymen and/or "army mine planter."

In order to strengthen the defense of the Alaskan coast the army ordered the 250th Coast Artillery from Camp McQuaide to the area of Sitka, Alaska in June 1941. Henry Hayden departed with his battery from San Francisco on September 12, 1941, aboard the SS Chirkof. They arrived in Seattle on September 15 and three days later, left for Alaska. During the month of September, his unit was deployed on a windswept island two miles wide and ten miles long, located seven miles across a choppy sea from Kodiak, Alaska.

The circumstances behind Hayden's death are not known, but the American Battlefield Monument Commission records note that on September 19, 1941, Henry Hayden
was "Missing in Action or Buried at Sea."

(NARA2; ABMC; SCSn Sept 18 1941, 8:8; WRP December 7,
1942)