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| Seaman 1/c William Ball served on the battleship USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7885008 https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/wars-and-events/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor-raid/battleship-row-during-the-pearl-harbor-attack/uss-arizona-during-the-pearl-harbor-attack.html |
William Vycent Ball never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
William was born on July 15, 1920 in Linn Grove, Iowa. His parents Wiley and Rebecca were both born in Virginia. His father worked as a farmer. William had an older brother and two younger sisters, and a younger brother.
William joined the navy in October 1938 and by January 1939 he was onboard the battleship USS Arizona. He obtained the rank of seaman first class. He joined his brother Masten who had been serving on Arizona for more than two years. Masten was a fireman first class. It was not uncommon for brothers or even fathers and sons to serve together on the same ship.
The Ball brothers were aboard Arizona on December 7, 1941 when it was attacked by Japanese bombers. William was killed during the attack and he remains entombed in the ship. Masten survived the attack, and the war, and died in 1985.
William and Masten were friends of Joseph, Madison, and Albert Sullivan. When they learned that William had been killed in the Pearl Harbor attack, they decided to enlist in the navy to avenge their friend's death. They joined brothers George and Francis on the cruiser USS Juneau. One of the best known stories of World War II was when the five Sullivan brothers were killed when Juneau was sunk by a Japanese submarine in November 1942.
William's grave is at the USS Arizona Memorial in Honolulu, Hawaii.
The website with the most information about William is USSArizona.org.
This is one of the final 50 stories to be written as part of this project which ends on September 2, 2020, the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. At that time more than 1,370 men and women will have been profiled. The project will live on in an expanded program to write the stories of all 400,000+ US World War II fallen. Visit www.storiesbehindthestars.org to learn more. We welcome your continued support and interest and encourage you to help write some of these stories.
Last year on this date I profiled Battle of the Bulge fallen Chestine Jenks, 106th Infantry Division. You can read about Chestine here.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
Follow on Twitter @ww2fallen100
Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100
This is one of the final 50 stories to be written as part of this project which ends on September 2, 2020, the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. At that time more than 1,370 men and women will have been profiled. The project will live on in an expanded program to write the stories of all 400,000+ US World War II fallen. Visit www.storiesbehindthestars.org to learn more. We welcome your continued support and interest and encourage you to help write some of these stories.
Last year on this date I profiled Battle of the Bulge fallen Chestine Jenks, 106th Infantry Division. You can read about Chestine here.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100
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