Joseph Rozmus was born in Manchester in 1919, the son of Polish immigrants, and lived on the East Side. “He was a basketball star at Central when he went to school.” After graduating high school, he worked as a gas station attendant for Queen City Gas & Oil Co., located on the corner of Maple and Valley streets, before joining the Navy in October 1940.

He was promoted to Seaman First Class and reported for duty aboard the Arizona in December 1940. Rozmus is among more than 900 men whose bodies remain entombed in the hulk of the Arizona on the bottom of Pearl Harbor.