​Vernard O. Wetrich

Fire Controlman First Class

Vernard Oren Wetrich was born in 1917 to Oren Arthur Wetrich and Ethel Wetrich. He enlisted in the Navy on August 12, 1941 and reported for duty on the USS Utah on November 7, 1941. The Iowa native was killed in action on December 7, 1941 during the Pearl Harbor attack. Petty Officer Wetrich was awarded the Purple Heart and is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, in Honolulu, Hawaii. Vernard was survived by his sister, Mrs. Hazel Hester of Earlham, Iowa.

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