Name: Almire PITTMAN Jr.
Rank / Rating: ST3-Steward Third Class
Service #: 851 52 59
DOB: Jan 21, 1921
From: Pine Bluff, AR
Parents: Almire Pittman Sr. and Caroline Davis Pittman
Went Aboard: May 05, 1943
Age When Ship Went Down: 24 years, 6 months, 9 days
Spouse: Iola Branch Pittman
Children:
Grandchildren:
Bio Submitted By: Jane Gwinn Goodall
Date Posted:

Almire (no middle name) Pittman, Jr. was born on 21 January 1922 in Pine Bluff, Arkansas to his namesake father, Almire Sr. (a laborer at a lumber mill), and mother, Caroline Davis Pittman. His mother died in 1928 when Almire Jr. was just six years old. The parents had been married for 24 years. The 1930 Census listed an Elmire (sic) Pittman, single head of household, with six sons, Henry Nathaniel (1905-1997), James C. (1907-1971), Richard (about 1912-1983), Napolean (1913-1944), Ernest Leon (1919-1999), and Almire (1922-1945), with paternal grandmother Ella Pittman also in the household. By the time the 1940 U.S. Census was taken, Almire Sr. had a wife, written by the census takers as “Fela” (sic), but later determined by marriage records to be Iola. (Note: spelling discrepancies were not uncommon in the early handwritten census reporting.)

Almire Pittman, Sr. married Iola Branch on 20 April 1935. The only children living in the household at that time were 23-year-old Napolean and 18-year-old Almire, Jr. At the time of his enlistment, Almire was not married and had no children. His brother Napolean married Cynthia Walls in 1936. Napolean became a casualty of the war one year before his brother, Almire Jr., on 27 August 1944. Staff Sergeant, 824th Amphibian Truck Company, Napoleon Pittman’s name is etched on a white cross at Fort William McKinley, Manila, the Philippines. Pittman registered for the draft when he was 21 years old. He was living in Kansas City, Missouri at the time and working at Phillips’ Barber Shop in Kansas City. He listed his brother, James Pittman as the person who would always know his address. Navy records on his first muster roll on USS Indianapolis show that he enlisted in the U.S. Navy from Chicago, Illinois on 24 February 1943. He was received aboard USS Indianapolis (CA-35) from San Francisco on 5 May 1943, the same day as his shipmate Robert Carter Peyton. His initial rank/rating was Steward’s Mate Second Class. Almire received a promotion to Steward’s Mate First Class on 1 May 1944, and on 1 February 1945, he was promoted to Steward Third Class. Almire Pittman, Jr.’s first battle on Indy was the Aleutians Operation in the Territory of Alaska to reclaim the island of Attu from the Japanese. Eight other Battle Stars followed, ending with the Battle for Okinawa on 31 March 1945. After the deaths of his nine shipmates killed in action, the ship limped back to San Francisco’s Mare Island shipyard for repairs. Pittman was 23 years old at the time that Indy was sunk. His father, Almire Sr. was notified of his son’s death. His stepmother Iola died three years later. His father, Almire Sr., died in 1972 at age 87 in Pine Bluff, AR. Almire Sr.’s obituary reported that he was survived by three of his sons, Nathanial of South Bend, Indiana, Richard of Chicago, Illinois, and Ernest of West Virginia. He was also survived by nine grandchildren and seventeen great-grandchildren.