World War II Honoree

Gerald Myers

Branch of Service

U.S. Navy

Hometown

Saint Joseph, Missouri

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Seaman Second Class. Inducted into the United States Navy February 24, 1943 at Kansas City, Missouri, with recruit training at the U.S. Naval Training Station Great Lakes, Illinois. Upon his graduation from boot camp, he was transferred to the USS Liscome Bay Escort Aircraft Carrier, CVE-56 for duty as an on-the-job trainee. The Carrier and her shipmates on November 19, 1943 accompanied by an armada of U.S. Warships, arrived offshore of off-shore of Makin Atoll in support of the impending invasion of Tarawa, Operation Galvanic Location: Central Pacific Theater of Operations. Reported missing in action or buried at sea November 24, 1943 when the seagoing airbase was torpedoed and sunk by an Imperial Japanese Submarine. In remembrance of the brave, his name is permanently inscribed in the tablets of the missing, memorialized at Honolulu Memorial Location: Honolulu, Hawaii. Later his missing in action status ultimately, to read killed in action November 25, 1944. This American Patriot was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, for his ultimate sacrifice in defense of his country.