Today Is Pearl Harbor Day
In February of 1942 the Milford Chronicle reported;
George Ames Penuel, Jr was the first Delaware man to give up his life for his country in World War II. He was on the destroyer U. S. S. Shaw at Pearl Harbor. In February of 1942 his parents, Mr. and Mrs. George A. Penuel of Millsboro, received a letter from the Navy Department reading;
“After an exhaustive search it has been found impossible to locate your son, George Ames Penuel Jr, boatswain’s mate second class, U. S. N. and he has been officially declared to have lost his life in the service of his country as of December 7, 1941.”
Born in Georgetown October 29, 1920 he went to school in Millsboro. He had been on the U. S. S. Shaw for nearly three years.
He was survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. George Penuel of Millsboro, four sisters; Miss Amelia Penuel of Millsboro, Mrs. George Zieglar of Seaford, Mrs. George W. Gillespie of Milford, and Mrs. Dudley Perkins of Philadelphia; two brothers Coard Penuel of Frankford and Granville Penuel of Wilmington.
The U. S. S. Shaw was a destroyer built at the United States Navy Yard in Philadelphia Pennsylvania and launched October 28, 1935. The U. S. S. Shaw was in drydock at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard on December 7, 1941. On the second Japanese strike wave she was hit by three bombs that detonated her forward ammunition magazine blowing off her bow. She was later repaired and saw service thru out WWII. The USS Shaw was decommissioned October 2, 1945 and scrapped in July of 1946.