World War II Honoree

William Thurman Price

Branch of Service

U.S. Army Air Force

Hometown

Mendenhall, Mississippi

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Private. Japanese Prisoner of War for 30 Months. Inducted into the United States Army Air Corps June 9, 1941 at Jackson, Mississippi. Served with the 701st Ordnance Aviation Company, 19th Bomb Group, V-Bomber Command, U.S. Far East 5th Air Force, stationed at Clark Field in the Philippine Islands. While engaged in combat during the Defense of Luzon and retreating to the Bataan Peninsula, the Japanese Invading Forces captured him April 9, 1942 during the invasion of the Philippine Islands. Forced to participate in the Bataan Death March and incarcerated in an unknown Prisoner of War Camp. On August 20, 1944 he boarded the Japanese ‘Hell Ship’ Shinyo Maru along with hundreds of other prisoners, whose destination was a Prisoner of War camp in Japan. The transport was torpedoed and sunk by the United States Submarine, USS Paddle off the northwest coast of Mindanao. Reported Missing in Action, Lost at Sea Thursday, September 7, 1944 and he is memorialized in the Tablets of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, located at Fort Bonifacio, Philippine Islands. In Memory and Honor, a cenotaph memorial has been placed in the Clearview Baptist Cemetery, Mendenhall, Mississippi as his body was never recovered. Decoration and Citation: Purple Heart. This American Patriot was awarded the Purple Heart, who so gallantly gave his life for his country.