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| Pfc. William Clark served with the famous jungle fighters known as Merrill's Marauders. https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=50007681&ref=acom https://www.pinterest.com/pin/65794844533293494/?lp=true |
William E. Clark never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on October 27, 1917 in Oklahoma. His mother Hulda was born in Kansas and his father Early was from Missouri. His father worked as a farmer and died in 1938 at age 54. William had a younger brother (who served 20 years in the Marines and was a POW during WW2) and two younger sisters. By 1940 William had completed four years of high school. He was living with his widowed mother working on the family farm.
He enlisted in the army on October 31, 1942, two years after his kid brother joined the Marines. He became a private first class in Company C, 1st Battalion, 5307 Composite Unit better known as Merrill's Marauders, an all volunteer force of 3,000 men. The men in this unit were specially trained in jungle warfare with deployment deep behind enemy lines.
By late February 1944, Clark's unit was in Burma on the start of a 1,000 mile march (that's the distance from Berlin to Moscow). Merrill's Marauders were able to successfully harass larger Japanese forces time and again. On March 12, 1944 Merrill's Marauders were advancing through Mogaung Valley. The men had to face Japanese artillery and took casualties, likely including Pfc. Clark who died on March 14, 1944.
His cenotaph grave is at Gotebo Cemetery in Oklahoma.
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.
This was my uncle I never got to meet..RIP!
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