World War II Honoree

Omer L. Beauchamp

Branch of Service

U.S. Navy

Hometown

Walhalla, North Dakota

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Aviation Ordnanceman Third Class. Inducted into the United States Navy August 18, 1942 at Minneapolis, Minnesota, with recruit training at the U.S. Naval Training Station Great Lakes, Illinois. Upon his graduation from boot camp and Aviation Ordnance Schooling/Training, he was transferred to the USS Liscome Bay Escort Aircraft Carrier CVE-95 for duty, responsible for maintenance on an aircraft’s ordnance systems, assigned to Composite Squadron-39. The Carrier and her shipmates on Friday, 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 Wednesday, 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. In his Memory and Honor, a cenotaph memorial has been placed at the Olga City Cemetery Olga, North Dakota. 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.