WW2 Fallen - James Sorensen, USS Pillsbury

James Sorensen was a cook on the destroyer USS Pillsbury in the Philippines.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/95300722/james-k_-sorensen
http://destroyerhistory.org/flushdeck/usspillsbury/ 

James K. Sorensen never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.

If you have enjoyed reading the stories of the WW2 fallen, Can you help write some stories? It's a big project. The more help, the better.  Announcing "The Stories Behind the Stars", see https://www.storiesbehindthestars.org. This crowd-sourced national project has the goal of compiling stories of all 400,000+ of the US World War 2 fallen in one free-to-access central database.  Anyone visiting a war memorial or gravesite will be able to scan the name of the fallen with a smartphone and his story will appear on the phone.

He was born on March 19, 1920 in Utah. His parents Harold and Dorcas were born in Denmark and Utah, respectively. His father worked as a farmer, coal mine driller and an engineer. James had three older brothers, two older sisters, one younger brother and one younger sister.

He enlisted in the US Navy in November 1939. He served on the light cruiser USS Savanah, and the destroyer USS John D. Edwards. On December 9, 1941 he became a ship's cook third class on the destroyer USS Pillsbury. Pillsbury was part of the Asiatic Fleet. When the war started it was based in the Philippines.

On the afternoon of December 10, 1941, the Cavite Naval Yard in Manila Bay came under Japanese high-level air attack. Pillsbury avoided major damage but when the attack was finished, Cook Sorensen was missing so he was classified as MIA. Pillsbury was sunk with all hands lost on February 8, 1942 in the Battle of Java Seas.

His cenotaph grave is at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Mount Pleasant, Utah.

Thank you Cook Sorensen for your sacrifice. Let's Earn It for James.

Last year on this date I profiled WW2 Hurtgen Forest Fallen Jack Anderson and his Silver Star hero only brother William, 2nd Ranger Battalion. You can read about Jack and William 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.

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WW2 Fallen 100 is supported by

The Greatest GENERATIONS Foundation

“Where Every Day is Memorial Day”

http://www.tggf.org