World War II Honoree

Everett Gordon Windle

Branch of Service

U.S. Navy

Hometown

Colby, Kansas

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Seaman Second Class. Inducted into the United States Navy May 5, 1941 at Kansas City, Missouri, with recruit training at the U.S. Naval Training Station San Diego, California. Upon his graduation from boot camp, he was transferred to the USS Oklahoma Battleship, BB-37 for duty as an on-the-job trainee, and based at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii. 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 Oklahoma along with her shipmates lay moored on Ford Island sustained multiple torpedo hits during the attack, which caused the Battlewagon to capsize. The Battle of Pearl Harbor took his during the ensuing 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 with Military Honors at Honolulu Memorial Cemetery Location: Honolulu, Hawaii, with Interment May 26, 2020. This American Patriot was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, for his ultimate sacrifice in defense of his country.