World War II Honoree

Robert Edward Bailey

Branch of Service

U.S. Navy

Hometown

Celina, Ohio

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Shipfitter Third Class. He was inducted into the United States Navy November 21, 1939 at Cincinnati, Ohio, with recruit training at the U.S. Naval Training Station Great Lakes, Illinois. Upon his graduation from boot camp and Shipfitter schooling, he was transferred to the USS Oklahoma Battleship, BB-37 for duty, responsible for fabricating, assembles and erects all structural parts of his ship, 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. 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. In his Memory and Honor, a cenotaph memorial has been placed at the Swamp College Cemetery in Celina, Ohio. This American Patriot was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, for his ultimate sacrifice in defense of his country.