A world-class event brought an end to the life of a navy lieutenant during a day of infamy.

US Census information suggests that Clifford Thurston Janz was born in New York about 1911. That same 1920 census lists him as a boarder in the household of Frank and Hattie Loomis of Plymouth, Michigan. No record of his formative years or relationship to Santa Cruz County has been found.

The date of his entry into the US Navy is not known; however, casualty records for the USS Arizona indicate that he was commissioned on December 10, 1938. Clifford Janz was married during this period; his wife remained in San Diego while he was away at sea.

On December 7, 1941, Lt. Clifford Janz was serving as an engineering officer aboard the battleship USS Arizona, which was moored on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor, as Japa- nese planes flew over the Pali on the island of Oahu. In an official report issued following the war, Ensign D. Hein, a survivor or the attack stated:

"At about two or three minutes before 0800 Sunday, I was asleep in my room when I faintly heard a siren. Shortly thereafter I distinctly heard G.Q. I put some clothes on and went up from lower wardroom country to the second deck.

"Lt. C.T. Janz was sending everyone in the vicinity to shelter below the armored deck. I went down with Lt. Janz and about forty enlisted men. Before we could close the hatch there were three violent blasts with flame and powder fumes entering the compartment. I then told all personnel in the vicinity to get out and go topside to avoid the gas. About twenty (20) enlisted personnel and myself went topside. I
saw the entire ship forward of #3 turret to be a raging fire."

This explosion likely took the life of Lt. Janz. His remains were never recovered. Janz is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at the US National Cemetery in Honolulu.

(http://www.patriotfiles.com/index.php?name=Sections&req=view
article&artid=1134&allpages=1&theme=Printer [April 10, 2009)]; USCR, 1920 US Census, MI, Plymouth; ABMC; SCSn November
11, 1944; DANFS, USS Arizona BB-39)