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| Sgt. William Buller served with the 24th Marine Regiment in Saipan. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/88080097/william-warren-buller https://1stbattalion24thmarines.com/the-battles/saipan/ |
William Warren Buller never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
William was born on 23 August 1920 in Patterson, New Jersey to John and Mae (Cummings) Buller. William had an older brother, John Jr., and an older sister, Ruth. William's father, born in Connecticut, was a truck driver for a local dairy while his mother Mae, born in Pennsylvania, was a weaver at a silk mill.
William attended primary at School No. 15 and went on to graduate from Eastside High School where he played football for the Eastside Ghosts. His obituary mentioned he also played football for the Army Clowns before enlistment into the Marines.
In 1940 William was a receiving clerk for the Leslie Company in Lyndhurst, New Jersey which supplied the military and merchant ships with steam contact equipment.
William enlisted in the Marines on 26 August 1942 and was attached to “D” Co. 1st Battalion (reinforcements) FMFTC at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina in 1944. His primary unit became
600, C Co, 1st BN, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division.
“William Buller was one of the original members of Dog Company. He was a squad leader with the Third Machine Gun Platoon. Buller was a popular leader; he earned a promotion to sergeant on January 11, 1944, and gunner Glenn Buzzard referred to Buller as his "big brother":
...not a whole lot older, but then everyone was older than me. I would say he was 24 years old at the time, and I was 17. I met him just out of boot camp. He'd sort of look after me, I'd say. I know I put on some pictures, "This is my brother while I was in the Marine Corps," but that is how I felt about him.
- Corporal Glenn Buzzard, quoted in Gail Chatfield's "By Dammit, We're Marines!"
Sergeant Buller led his squad through the battle of Namur, and was transferred to Charlie Company in March 1944.
With Charlie Company:
Sergeant Buller became a squad leader with Charlie Company's machine gun platoon. He made the landing on Saipan, and fought through the first tough weeks of the campaign.
Buller was equally as popular with officers as he was with other enlisted men; he was particular friends with his platoon leader, First Lieutenant Alex Santilli. On July 8, 1944, as First Battalion prepared to advance on Marpi Point, Lieutenant Santilli was distracted by a disturbance in front of his platoon. A number of civilians - women, children, and men holding babies - emerged from a treeline, calling to the Marines. The platoon was in a partially harvested cane field, and as Santilli and Buller went to investigate the civilians, shots rang out from beneath one of the piles of sugar cane. Both Santilli and Buller were killed; Buzzard saw them go down "within seconds of each other."
Sgt. Buller was awarded the following:
Purple Heart
Combat Action Ribbon
Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
American Campaign Medal
Navy Presidential Unit Citation
WWII Victory Medal
Sgt. Buller was buried in Row 9, Grave 16 of the Second Marine Division Cemetery. After the war, he was reinterred in Cedar Lawn Cemetery along with his parents in Paterson, New Jersey.
Thank you, William Warren Buller for your sacrifice. Let’s ‘Earn It” for William.
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This profile was written by Linda Simpson. I have been an avid genealogist, researching my ancestry in Canada, France, Belgium, and Ireland for over 40 years. I am also a historian for The Seminole Nation, Indian Territory, and The Past Whispers. When I saw an article on Don’s project I knew I wanted to be a part of Stories Behind the Stars. What an amazing way to honor our fallen, by ‘Earning It’ for them.
This is one of the final 50 stories (11) 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 B-17 navigator Thomas Meeks. You can read about Thomas 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
WW2 Fallen 100 is supported by
The Greatest GENERATIONS Foundation
“Where Every Day is Memorial Day”
References:
Eastside High School - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastside_High_School_(Paterson,_New_Jersey)
Leslie Company - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Controls
Together We Served - https://marines.togetherweserved.com/usmc/servlet/tws.webapp.WebApp?cmd=ShadowBoxProfile&type=Person&ID=496914
2nd Marine Division Cemetery Saipan, Marianas Islands – 1945 http://digitalcollections.smu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/fjd/id/540
Marianas Campaign During WWII National Park Service
https://www.nps.gov/amme/learn/historyculture/upload/COHlisting.pdf
Breaching the Marianas: The Battle for Saipan 2nd Marine Division
https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USMC/USMC-C-Saipan/index.html
Find A Grave – https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/88080097/william-warren-buller
Ancestry – 1940 Census - https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2442/images/m-t0627-02433-00769?treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true&usePUBJs=true&_ga=2.99431325.2056080605.1597850184-1521280555.1596418198&pId=130998385
Newspapers.com – The Morning Call, Paterson, NJ and The News, Paterson, NJ
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