 |
| Seaman Elmer Williams served on the USS Braine when it was struck by kamikaze planes near Okinawa. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/78870630/elmer-e-williams http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/pix1/0563008.jpg |
Elmer E. Williams, Jr. never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on August 27, 1918 in California. His parents Elmer and Mary were born in California and Washington, respectively. His father worked as a truck driver and later as a school janitor. Still later he worked as a farmer. Elmer had one older sister and one younger sister. By 1940 Elmer had completed four years of high school (where he played in the band) and was working as a sheet metal apprentice.
He enlisted in the navy and became a seaman second class. By May 1945 he was serving aboard the destroy USS Braine. While positioned as a radar picket ship on May 27, 1945, Braine was hit by two kamikaze planes. The first severely damaged the bridge and the second hit amidship. Although grievously damaged, the fires on the ship were put out after four hours. Sixty seven men, including Seaman Williams, were killed and another 102 were wounded. It was the highest casualty rate on any destroyer during WW2 that was not sunk.
His grave is at Union Cemetery, Bakersfield, California.
Last year on this date I profiled Dennis Sikes, USS Boise. You can read about Dennis 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
No comments:
Post a Comment