World War II Honoree

Robert H. Wilson

Branch of Service

U.S. Navy

Hometown

New Orleans, Louisiana

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Pharmacist’s Mate Second Class. He was inducted into the United States Navy from Louisiana. Served as a Combat Medic aboard the USS Bache Destroyer DD-470 in the Pacific Theater of Operations. On March 21, 1945 the Destroyer and her shipmates, along with an armada of U.S. Battleships, Cruisers, and other Destroyers arrived off shore of Okinawa in support of the impeding invasion. The warships were assigned to a radar picket station off-shore of Okinawa on April 15, 1945. Reported missing in action Sunday, May 13, 1945 when an Imperial Japanese Kamikaze Pilot flew into the Destroyer, with one bomb exploding on the deck. His name is permanently inscribed in the tablets of the missing, memorialized at the Honolulu National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, ‘Punchbowl’ Hawaii. This American Patriot was awarded the Purple Heart, for his ultimate sacrifice in defense of his country.