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Casualty Info
Home Town Ashland
Casualty Date Dec 07, 1941
Cause KIA-Body Not Recovered
Reason Other Explosive Device
Location Hawaii
Conflict World War II
Wall/Plot Coordinates Highland Cemetery in Ashland, Kansas
Military Service Number 3 422 501
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Seaman/1c Willard Aldridge was Killed in Action on December 7, 1941, during the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was stationed aboard the USS Oklahoma BB37.
Comments/Citation:
Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency annouced that Navy Seaman 1st Class Willard H. Aldridge, killed during the attack on the USS Oklahoma in World War II, has now been accounted for as of Jan 11, 2018
On Dec. 7, 1941, Aldridge was assigned to the USS Oklahoma, which was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, when the ship was attacked by Japanese aircraft. The USS Oklahoma sustained multiple torpedo hits, which caused it to quickly capsize. The attack on the ship resulted in the deaths of 429 crewmen, including Aldridge.
In 2015, DPAA disinterred remains from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu.
DPAA is appreciative to the Department of Veterans Affairs for their partnership in this mission
Interment services are pending; more details will be released 7-10 days prior to scheduled funeral services.
Aldridge's name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others who are missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
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Seaman First Second Class (S1c) Willard Henry Aldridge, United States Navy. Service Number: 3422501
Early Life
Willard Henry Aldridge was born on 26 August 1921 in Sitka, Clark County, Kansas. His father, John Frances Aldridge, born 18 January 1888 in Ashland, Clark County, Kansas, died 19 June 1962 in Tucson, Pima County, Arizona, was a farmer. His mother, Zola Irene Claypool was born on 2 October 1893 in Sumner County, Kansas and died on 27 March 1929 in Clark County, Kansas. Willard’s parents were married on 29 November 1912 in Kansas. Willard was the eighth of ten children in the family; he had five older brothers, two older sisters, a younger brother and a younger sister.
Military
Willard Henry Aldridge enlisted in the United States on 25 July 1940 in Kansas City, Missouri. Following boot camp and additional follow-on training, he was assigned to the Battleship USS Oklahoma (BB-37) which was stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
On the morning of 7 December 1941, a fleet of Japanese carriers launched an air strike against the U.S. Pacific Fleet at anchor in Pearl Harbor, on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. The attack decimated the ships and personnel of the fleet and thrust the United States into World War II. At the onset of the 7 December 1941 attack, the battleship USS Oklahoma (BB-37), being moored at berth Fox 5 on “Battleship Row.” Just before 8 am, the Oklahoma was among the first of the ships struck in the attack. A torpedo struck on her port side and she capsized quickly. After the Arizona, she was the largest loss of life, at 429 sailors and marines. The Oklahoma was salvaged in 1942, but it was determined she could not be repaired. In May of 1947, she was sold for scrap and while under tow to California, she sank in a storm. Her exact location remains unknown to this day.
Death and Burial
Willard Henry Aldridge was Declared Dead while Missing in Action or Lost at Sea on 7 December 1941 aboard the USS Oklahoma during the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart Medal. He is memorialized at the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, located inside Punchbowl Crater in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Additional information from the 2 May 2018 Wichita, Kansas Eagle on the identification of the remains of Willard Henry Aldridge follows:
Out in Ashland in southwest Kansas where the wildfires raged out of control last spring and neighbors, friends and strangers pitched into help, people have now turned their focus this spring into the preparations for Willard Henry Aldridge's return home. Local high school members in the honors program, called SHOW, have volunteered to meet his plane later this month when it flies into Dodge City to provide an honor escort into Ashland. Patriot Guard riders and local members of the VFW Post will greet the remains of Navy Seaman First Class Aldridge who lost his life aboard the USS Oklahoma on Dec. 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor.
The thing is most of those Ashland residents making the preparations for Seaman Aldridge never knew the man. He disappeared more than 76 years ago — killed in battle. He was trapped aboard the Oklahoma, which was moored at Fort Island, Pearl Harbor. He was listed among the casualties two weeks after the attack. The battleship received multiple torpedo hits on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, causing the ship to quickly capsize. Four hundred and twenty-nine sailors on the ship died that morning, including Aldridge.
In recent years, advances in DNA research have enabled military authorities to identify the remains of the dead, many of whom were buried in mass graves. Aldridge's family was notified in 2013 that there was a possibility that his remains might be identified. Relatives provided DNA and in 2015, the family was contacted that a match had been found, according to Ray Sumners, a nephew living in Colorado.
Seaman Aldridge will be buried May 26 with full military honors in the Highland Cemetery in Ashland, where his parents, grandparents and other family members are already buried. On May 25, a six-person Navy Honor Guard will bring him to Ashland along with the high school students and the Patriot Guard. And at 11 a.m. on the 26th, there will be a processional from the Schilling Funeral Home on Main Street to the cemetery.
His name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl in Hawaii, along with the others who are missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for. Seaman Aldridge was born Aug. 26, 1921 at his family's farm, north of Sitka. He was the sixth of 10 children born to John and Zola Irene Aldridge. All of his immediate family had died. His closest relatives are nephews.
The local VFW post No. 7770 in Ashland was named after Seaman Aldridge after he was killed in 1941. His brother, William, (who died in 2006) served as the State Commander of the VFW from 1964 to 1965. "For me, this is history," said Ray Sumners, a nephew, who spent 31 years serving in the military. "I was so young when this happened." The Aldridge family, Sumners said, seldom spoke of Seaman Aldridge.
"The old farm burned and afterward my grandfather moved to Tuscon," Sumners said. "They didn't buy or store fancy stuff that wasn't utilitarian. So, the condolence letter from the Navy, I just have a file copy. "Back in those days, people didn't talk about those things. My mom has a memory case pin that has a big pearl on it that has written on it 'Remember Pearl Harbor.' They were farming people and farm people talk about hogs and the price of grain. You are lucky if you get them to say that."
Seaman Aldridge's mother died when he was 8 years old. He grew up during the Great Depression, helping his family on the farm. That part of the state was some of the hardest hit during the historic Dust Bowl storms in the 1930s. In 1940, he enlisted in the Navy at Great Bend.
For his time in service, he earned the Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon, American Defense Medal with one battle star, the Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal with one battle star and the World War II Victory medal.
Sumners said that from Dec. 9, 1941 through June 1944, the Navy recovered the remains of the dead from the Pearl Harbor attack and mixed the remains in two military cemeteries in Honolulu. They were interred simply as the "unknowns." In 2003, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command disinterred a single casket that contained the partial remains of about 100 crew members from the USS Oklahoma.
Advancements in DNA allowed identification of the remains, and family members were sought out. The remains were matched with mitochondrial DNA samples. Samples from Aldridge family members provided to the Navy included Seaman Aldridge's sister, Ethel McCauly, who was still living at that point, Ethel's daughter Alice Lindamood, Richard Aldridge and Ray Sumners.
In Ashland, people are preparing to welcome Seaman Aldridge back home.
This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see https://www.storiesbehindthestars.org/). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Together We Served and Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smartphone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen person's name and read his/her story.
If you have any details, photos, or corrections for this story, please email me by clicking on my name. CDR Robert "Red" Mulvanny-Contributing Author, Stories Behind the Stars
