World War II Honoree
Killed in World War II
William Walker Ford
Branch of Service
U.S. Navy
Hometown
Covington, Kentucky
Honored By
Orville L. Kline
Rank: Electrician Mate Third Class. He was inducted into the United States Navy September 5, 1940 at Cincinnati, Ohio. Served aboard the USS Arizona Battleship, BB-39 and based at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii. On Sunday Morning, December 7, 1941 the Emperor of Japan’s Naval Aviators launched a devastating, surprise attack on the U.S. Naval Base, and other military installations on Oahu. The Arizona moored on Ford Island along with her shipmates came under attack, and she was mortally wounded by an armor piercing bomb that ignited the ship’s forward ammunition magazine. The Battle of Pearl Harbor took his life on the day of the attack. 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 posthumously, for his ultimate sacrifice in defense of his country.