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| Petty Officer Lawrence Boxrucker was killed on the USS Oklahoma, depicted here in a painting by Tom Freeman. He is remembered at the USS Oklahoma Memorial. https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=77271764 https://www.pinterest.com/pin/525162006526906702/?lp=true |
Lawrence Anton Boxrucker never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on November 10, 1917 in Wisconsin. His parents John and Mary were also both born in Wisconsin, one generation removed from Central Europe. His father worked as a dairy farmer. Lawrence had an older sister, a twin brother (who also served in the Navy for the full length of the war), and a younger brother. By 1940 Lawrence had completed 8 years of schooling and was living at home while working as a farm hand.
Neither Lawrence nor his twin brother Louis were interested in the farming life. They headed west looking for work but, being unsuccessful, they both joined the Navy on December 18, 1940. While Louis was assigned to a ship in the Caribbean, Lawrence became a fireman apprentice 2nd class on the USS Oklahoma. On December 7, 1941 Oklahoma was one of the first targets hit by the Japanese raid. Three torpedoes caused the ship to roll over and capsize within 12 minutes, entrapping hundred of men inside the ship.
The death toll on the Oklahoma was 429 killed. Many of them remained entombed for 18 months before being removed from the ship when it was raised. Unable to identify many of these men, they where buried in graves marked unknown.
His cenotaph memorial was set up at Dorchester Memorial Cemetery in Wisconsin in 1959. He was finally laid to rest there in September 2008 after his remains had finally be identified, the first of the many unknown Oklahoma crew victim returned to family for burial. His 90 year old twin brother was there to receive the folded flag from the coffin.
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.
Join the public Facebook group WW2 Fallen 100
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