World War II Honoree
Killed in World War II
William Thermon Barnett
Branch of Service
U.S. Navy
Hometown
El Paso, Arkansas
Honored By
Orville L. Kline
Rank: Seaman Second Class. He was inducted into the United States Navy March 28 1941 at Little Rock, Arkansas, with recruit training at the U.S. Naval Training Station San Diego, California. After completing boot camp, he was transferred to the USS Arizona Battleship, BB-39 for duty, 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. In his Memory and Honor, a cenotaph memorial has been placed at the Blasingame Cemetery in El Paso, Arkansas. This American Patriot was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, for his ultimate sacrifice in defense of his country.