World War II Honoree

Welborn Lee Ashby

Branch of Service

U.S. Navy

Hometown

Centertown, Kentucky

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Fireman Third Class. Inducted into the United States Navy September 24, 1940 at Louisville, Kentucky, with recruit training at the U.S. Naval Training Station Great Lakes, Illinois. Upon his graduation from boot camp and Fire Training, he was transferred to the USS West Virginia Battleship, BB-48 for duty as a Fireman, and based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaiian Islands. On Sunday Morning, December 7, 1941 the Emperor of Japan and his Naval Aviators launched their well-planned attack on the U.S. Fleet at Pearl Harbor and other military installations on Oahu. The West Virginia along with her shipmates was moored on Ford Island, and sunk by Japanese aircraft, who delivered numerous torpedo hits to the ship’s hull. The Battle of Pearl Harbor took his life succeeding 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 Honolulu Memorial Location: Honolulu, Hawaii. In June of 2017, personnel from the Defense Prisoners of War/Missing in Action Accounting Agency in Hawaii disinterred an unknown from Oahu Cemetery, and transferred the remains to their Honolulu’s laboratory for analysis, where he was identified. The family of this Seaman requested that he be buried at Centertown Cemetery Centertown, Kentucky. This American Patriot was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, for his ultimate sacrifice in defense of his country.