World War II Honoree

Willard Henry Aldridge

Branch of Service

U.S. Navy

Hometown

Ashland, Kansas

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Seaman First Class. He was inducted into the United States Navy July 25, 1940 at Great Bend, Kansas, with recruit training at the U.S. Naval Training Station Great Lakes, Illinois. After completing boot camp, he was transferred to the USS Oklahoma Battleship, BB-37 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 Oklahoma moored on Ford Island along with her shipmates came under attack, and she sustained multiple torpedo strikes, which caused the warship to capsize. The Battle of Pearl Harbor took his life on the day of the attack, and interred as an unknown in the Oahu Nuuanu Cemetery, Territory of Hawaii. In remembrance of the brave, his name is permanently inscribed in the tablets of the missing, memorialized at the Honolulu National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific ‘Punchbowl’ Hawaii. After the cessation of hostilities with Japan, personnel from an American Graves Registration Company disinterred the unknown remains from the Oahu Cemetery, and laid them to rest in the Punchbowl Cemetery. In June of 2015, personnel from the Defense Prisoners of War/Missing in Action Accounting Agency in Hawaii disinterred an unknown from Punchbowl, and transferred the remains to their Honolulu’s laboratory for analysis, where he was identified. The family of this Sailor received his remains for burial. He was laid to rest with Military Honors, May 26, 2018 at the Highland Cemetery in Ashland, Kansas. This American Patriot was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, for his ultimate sacrifice in defense of his country.