This memorial marker is a CENOTAPH. Williams is among those lost at sea whose remains have not been found.
Contributor: DB6654 (48558131)
Richard B Williams Gettysburg, South Dakota
Gettysburg Cemetery
502 East Commercial
Gettysburg, SD 57442
Birth:Nov 12 1914
Death:Dec 15 1944
Age:30
Branch:US NAVY
Rank:LT
War:WORLD WAR II∼Richard Beebe "Bill" Williams, son of Jay H. and Vera Bonnie (Beebe) Williams, graduated from the Naval Academy at Annapolis, MD, in 1937 with a degree in engineering. He married Anne Lucile Fuller, daughter of Howard G. and Anne (Billinghurst) Fuller, on Aug. 20, 1937 in Long Beach, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
By Sept. 1941, he was the executive officer aboard the USS Oahu, a gunboat in service on the Yangtze River in China. As signs of approaching war with Japan became clearer, the USS Oahu was sent from China to the Philippine Islands, arriving just three days before the bombing of Pearl Harbor (Dec. 1941). The Oahu operated in Manila Bay in support of US forces. After Bataan fell, Bill was ordered ashore in charge of gun crews at Fort Hughes where he was taken prisoner by the Japanese on May 6, 1942. From there he and the other prisoners were marched to Camp Cabanatuan where they endured starvation, brutality, and torture. In the Fall of 1944 Bill was relocated to Bilibid Prison in Manila. His final letter home was dated 13 Dec. 1944 at which time he told his wife that he was being taken to Japan.
On Dec. 13, 1944, Bill was one of the 1619 prisoners forced into the unventilated hold of the Japanese ship Oryoku Maru. Because the Oryoku Maru was not marked as a POW vessel, it was strafed by American planes from the aircraft carrier Hornet until it sank in Subic Bay (Philippine Islands) on Dec. 15, 1944. It isn't known whether Bill died in the ship or if he was shot in the water by the Japanese as he tried to escape. His body was never recovered, but the family was allowed to place a military gravestone in his memory at the Gettysburg Cemetery, Gettysburg, Potter County, SD, USA.
Bill was survived by his parents, his wife, his sister Florence Elizabeth, and his brother Terrence who was a POW in Germany at the time, but survived the war.
Contributor: DB6654 (48558131)
Richard B Williams Gettysburg, South Dakota
Gettysburg Cemetery
502 East Commercial
Gettysburg, SD 57442
Birth:Nov 12 1914
Death:Dec 15 1944
Age:30
Branch:US NAVY
Rank:LT
War:WORLD WAR II∼Richard Beebe "Bill" Williams, son of Jay H. and Vera Bonnie (Beebe) Williams, graduated from the Naval Academy at Annapolis, MD, in 1937 with a degree in engineering. He married Anne Lucile Fuller, daughter of Howard G. and Anne (Billinghurst) Fuller, on Aug. 20, 1937 in Long Beach, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
By Sept. 1941, he was the executive officer aboard the USS Oahu, a gunboat in service on the Yangtze River in China. As signs of approaching war with Japan became clearer, the USS Oahu was sent from China to the Philippine Islands, arriving just three days before the bombing of Pearl Harbor (Dec. 1941). The Oahu operated in Manila Bay in support of US forces. After Bataan fell, Bill was ordered ashore in charge of gun crews at Fort Hughes where he was taken prisoner by the Japanese on May 6, 1942. From there he and the other prisoners were marched to Camp Cabanatuan where they endured starvation, brutality, and torture. In the Fall of 1944 Bill was relocated to Bilibid Prison in Manila. His final letter home was dated 13 Dec. 1944 at which time he told his wife that he was being taken to Japan.
On Dec. 13, 1944, Bill was one of the 1619 prisoners forced into the unventilated hold of the Japanese ship Oryoku Maru. Because the Oryoku Maru was not marked as a POW vessel, it was strafed by American planes from the aircraft carrier Hornet until it sank in Subic Bay (Philippine Islands) on Dec. 15, 1944. It isn't known whether Bill died in the ship or if he was shot in the water by the Japanese as he tried to escape. His body was never recovered, but the family was allowed to place a military gravestone in his memory at the Gettysburg Cemetery, Gettysburg, Potter County, SD, USA.
Bill was survived by his parents, his wife, his sister Florence Elizabeth, and his brother Terrence who was a POW in Germany at the time, but survived the war.
This memorial marker is a CENOTAPH. Williams is among those lost at sea whose remains have not been found.
Contributor: DB6654 (48558131)
Richard B Williams Gettysburg, South Dakota
Gettysburg Cemetery
502 East Commercial
Gettysburg, SD 57442
Birth:Nov 12 1914
Death:Dec 15 1944
Age:30
Branch:US NAVY
Rank:LT
War:WORLD WAR II∼Richard Beebe "Bill" Williams, son of Jay H. and Vera Bonnie (Beebe) Williams, graduated from the Naval Academy at Annapolis, MD, in 1937 with a degree in engineering. He married Anne Lucile Fuller, daughter of Howard G. and Anne (Billinghurst) Fuller, on Aug. 20, 1937 in Long Beach, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
By Sept. 1941, he was the executive officer aboard the USS Oahu, a gunboat in service on the Yangtze River in China. As signs of approaching war with Japan became clearer, the USS Oahu was sent from China to the Philippine Islands, arriving just three days before the bombing of Pearl Harbor (Dec. 1941). The Oahu operated in Manila Bay in support of US forces. After Bataan fell, Bill was ordered ashore in charge of gun crews at Fort Hughes where he was taken prisoner by the Japanese on May 6, 1942. From there he and the other prisoners were marched to Camp Cabanatuan where they endured starvation, brutality, and torture. In the Fall of 1944 Bill was relocated to Bilibid Prison in Manila. His final letter home was dated 13 Dec. 1944 at which time he told his wife that he was being taken to Japan.
On Dec. 13, 1944, Bill was one of the 1619 prisoners forced into the unventilated hold of the Japanese ship Oryoku Maru. Because the Oryoku Maru was not marked as a POW vessel, it was strafed by American planes from the aircraft carrier Hornet until it sank in Subic Bay (Philippine Islands) on Dec. 15, 1944. It isn't known whether Bill died in the ship or if he was shot in the water by the Japanese as he tried to escape. His body was never recovered, but the family was allowed to place a military gravestone in his memory at the Gettysburg Cemetery, Gettysburg, Potter County, SD, USA.
Bill was survived by his parents, his wife, his sister Florence Elizabeth, and his brother Terrence who was a POW in Germany at the time, but survived the war.
Contributor: DB6654 (48558131)
Richard B Williams Gettysburg, South Dakota
Gettysburg Cemetery
502 East Commercial
Gettysburg, SD 57442
Birth:Nov 12 1914
Death:Dec 15 1944
Age:30
Branch:US NAVY
Rank:LT
War:WORLD WAR II∼Richard Beebe "Bill" Williams, son of Jay H. and Vera Bonnie (Beebe) Williams, graduated from the Naval Academy at Annapolis, MD, in 1937 with a degree in engineering. He married Anne Lucile Fuller, daughter of Howard G. and Anne (Billinghurst) Fuller, on Aug. 20, 1937 in Long Beach, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
By Sept. 1941, he was the executive officer aboard the USS Oahu, a gunboat in service on the Yangtze River in China. As signs of approaching war with Japan became clearer, the USS Oahu was sent from China to the Philippine Islands, arriving just three days before the bombing of Pearl Harbor (Dec. 1941). The Oahu operated in Manila Bay in support of US forces. After Bataan fell, Bill was ordered ashore in charge of gun crews at Fort Hughes where he was taken prisoner by the Japanese on May 6, 1942. From there he and the other prisoners were marched to Camp Cabanatuan where they endured starvation, brutality, and torture. In the Fall of 1944 Bill was relocated to Bilibid Prison in Manila. His final letter home was dated 13 Dec. 1944 at which time he told his wife that he was being taken to Japan.
On Dec. 13, 1944, Bill was one of the 1619 prisoners forced into the unventilated hold of the Japanese ship Oryoku Maru. Because the Oryoku Maru was not marked as a POW vessel, it was strafed by American planes from the aircraft carrier Hornet until it sank in Subic Bay (Philippine Islands) on Dec. 15, 1944. It isn't known whether Bill died in the ship or if he was shot in the water by the Japanese as he tried to escape. His body was never recovered, but the family was allowed to place a military gravestone in his memory at the Gettysburg Cemetery, Gettysburg, Potter County, SD, USA.
Bill was survived by his parents, his wife, his sister Florence Elizabeth, and his brother Terrence who was a POW in Germany at the time, but survived the war.
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