Baird, Billy B., S1c

William “Billy” Byron Baird* (#2916570) was born on October 2, 1922, in Pittsburg, Indiana. He was the only child of Byron Buchanan Baird and Verna (Vera) Lucile Bowman Baird.[1] Billy’s father worked as an interurban conductor and teacher at Delphi High School, while Billy’s mother stayed home as a housewife.[2]

While Billy’s early years are largely undocumented, through US census records it has been determined that at some point between age four and seven, Billy’s parents divorced, and Billy and his mother moved in with his maternal grandparents, George and Martha Bowman.[3] After the divorce, Billy’s father moved to Fort Wayne, IN, where he lived as a boarder with a married couple who rented him a room.[4] It is unknown if Billy ever associated with his father after the divorce; however, his father did go on to remarry on August 4, 1930 in St. Joseph Michigan, and he and his second wife, Leona K. Schmitz, welcomed Billy’s half-sister, Susan L. Baird, in 1938.[5]

Billy continued to live in his grandparent’s home throughout high school. His grandfather, George Bowman, passed away from heart failure on August 4, 1938. According to 1940 census records, Billy remained living with his grandmother, Martha Bowman, after his grandfather’s passing.[6]

Billy graduated from Delphi High School in 1940, where he was noted by the Delphi Citizen as having been an “affable young man” and “one of the most popular students” at school.[7]

Billy enlisted in the United States Navy on October 8, 1940, just six days after his eighteenth birthday.[8] He completed his basic training at NTS Great Lakes and was received aboard the USS Arizona on December 9, 1940.[9] During his year of service in the US Navy, Billy achieved the rank of Seaman First Class.[10] In addition to basic naval duties such as drill duties, knots, steering and signaling, as well as standing watch and gunnery duties, Billy completed training for radio operations.[11]

On December 7, 1941, Billy was reported to have been located within the radio compartment of the USS Arizona when she was hit in an adjacent funnel. It is believed that he was killed by this blast. A telegram reported Billy as “missing in action” following the attack; however, he is now presumed to be one of the 900+ sailors interred within the hull of the USS Arizona.[12]  

At the onset of the December 7, 1941 attack, the battleship USS Arizona (BB-39) was moored at berth Fox 7 on “Battleship Row.” The repair ship Vestal (AR-4) was on the port side, and the starboard side faced the northeastern shore of Ford Island. Just before 8 am, the ship’s air raid alarm sounded, and the crew was ordered to general quarters. During the attack the battleship was struck by as many as eight aerial bombs, including one 1,700 lb. armor-piercing shell which penetrated the deck near the Number 2 turret and detonated in the smokeless powder magazine, causing a “cataclysmic” explosion “which destroyed the ship forward” and ignited a fire which burned for two days. Most of the Arizona crewmen who perished in the attack died instantly during the explosion. The ship quickly sank to the bottom of the harbor along with 1,177 of the 1,512 personnel on board, representing about half the total number of Americans killed that day.[13]
 
William “Billy” Baird was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart, American Defense Service Medal with Fleet Clasp, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with Star, WWII Victory Medal, and  Combat Action Medal, for his service. As with the other 400,000 WWII fallen, Baird is also a Gold Star veteran for making the ultimate sacrifice in service to the United States of America.[14]
 
Two months after Billy's death, on February 16, 1942, his father, Byron Buchanan Baird, was drafted at the age of forty-three to fight in WWII.[15] Byron Baird, who was a veteran of WWI where he served with Battery C. 197th Field Artillery in the A.E.F., survived both wars and died on July 18, 1964.[16] 
 
*Billy’s middle name occurs both as Byron and Bryon in his military records. His name is recorded on the 5th Court of the Courts of the Missing as Billy Bryon Baird; however, in the USN muster roll of December 31, 1941, and the U.S. Navy Casualty books, 1776-1941, his name is listed as Billy Byron Baird, the same as it is noted in the 1930 and 1940 census records.[17]
 
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