World War II Honoree

Otis L. Hamilton

Branch of Service

U.S. Navy

Hometown

Payson, Utah

Honored By

Randy Hamilton

Relationship

Son

U.S. Navy Service From May 17, 1943 to November 25, 1945. Reported to the induction center May 17 and was sworn into the U.S. Navy on or about May 25, 1943. After basic training he received orders to report to San Francisco to receive his assignment. He was to serve aboard the destroyer USS Balch DD-363. The ship then departed for the South Pacific Theater of Operations. The Ship crossed the equator heading south September 16, 1943. he served in heavy combat operations until July of 1944. While there at the end of the New Guinea campaign, the ship was ordered to report to Brooklyn Navy yard with all possible haste for refit and overhaul. While in New York the ship was re-assigned to duty escorting and protecting 40-80 merchant ship convoys supplying the war effort in North Africa and Europe. He made 10 Atlantic crossings in until the War ended in Europe in 1945.