World War II Honoree

James Cecil Webb

Branch of Service

U.S. Navy

Hometown

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Fireman First Class. Inducted into the United States Navy June 30, 1940 at Little Rock, Arkansas, with recruit training at the U.S. Naval Training Station San Diego, California. Upon his graduation from boot camp and Fire Training, he was transferred to the USS Oklahoma Battleship, BB-37 for duty as a Fireman, and based at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii. 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 came under attack and sustained three torpedo hits, and as she capsized six more torpedoes struck home. The Battle of Pearl Harbor took his life during the ensuing attack, and interred 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 2015, 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. His family requested that he be buried with Military Honors at Dale Cemetery Dale, Oklahoma, with interment September 23, 2020. This American Patriot was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, for his ultimate sacrifice in defense of his country.