RICHARD B. WILLIAMS, LT, USN

Richard Williams '37

Date of birth: November 12, 1914

Date of death: December 15, 1944

Age: 30

Lucky Bag

From the 1937 Lucky Bag:

RICHARD BEEBE WILLIAMS

Gettysburg, South Dakota

"Stud" "Bill" "Rajah"

Stud is a cosmopolite, but claims South Dakota as his fatherland. He possesses potentially every quality necessary to success, but is a bit irresponsible. However, that only enhances his fatal charm. His greatest interest is in people, especially in members of the opposite sex, and he is able to adapt himself to any situation. His ready wit, deep sense of humor, and indisputable gift of gab enable him to make life brighter for those around him. Bill is thoroughly "one of the boys", and has a host of friends. His greatest ambition is to be a marine, as were his forebears.

C. P. O.

RICHARD BEEBE WILLIAMS

Gettysburg, South Dakota

"Stud" "Bill" "Rajah"

Stud is a cosmopolite, but claims South Dakota as his fatherland. He possesses potentially every quality necessary to success, but is a bit irresponsible. However, that only enhances his fatal charm. His greatest interest is in people, especially in members of the opposite sex, and he is able to adapt himself to any situation. His ready wit, deep sense of humor, and indisputable gift of gab enable him to make life brighter for those around him. Bill is thoroughly "one of the boys", and has a host of friends. His greatest ambition is to be a marine, as were his forebears.

C. P. O.

Loss

From Find A Grave:

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.

His wife was listed as next of kin. He has a memory marker in South Dakota.

Obituary

From the South Dakota WWII Memorial, formerly at http://military.sd.gov/sdwwiimemorial/SubPages/profiles/Display.asp?P=2078:

Richard Beebe Williams, nicknamed Bill, was born November 12, 1914, at Gettysburg, SD, to Jay H. and Vera Bonnie Beebe Williams. Bill was the oldest of three children (brother – Terrence MacFarlane Williams; sister – Florence Elizabeth Williams Bogue).
Bill attended grade school in Gettysburg and high school at Shattuck Military High School in Fairibault, MN. After attending Devitt, a prep school in the Washington, DC area, Bill was appointed to the Naval Academy at Annapolis, MD, and graduated from there in 1937 with a degree in engineering. At that time he entered the United States Navy as an Ensign. He married Ann Lucile Fuller in August of 1937 in Los Angeles. The marriage was actually against the rules because Ensigns were not supposed to marry for two years. He and Lucile had no children.
Lieutenant Williams first duty was in Washington State. By November of 1939 he had been assigned to Hawaii where he and Lucile lived in Honolulu. On 3 January 1940 he received orders for duty on a destroyer in China, but before he left, his orders were changed. Instead he reported (1 February 1940) for duty on the USS Augusta in the Philippine Islands. In April 1940 the USS Augusta was sent to China.
In China Lt. Williams served aboard the flagship USS Luzon, a heavy draft gunboat, after the USS Augusta was relieved in September 1940. Because trouble appeared to be brewing, Lucile and the other wives were evacuated by ship (the Monterey) on November 3, 1940. Lieutenant Williams received his Lt. j.g. commission November 21, 1940. On 26 September 1941, he became the executive officer, chief engineer, and First Lt. aboard the USS Oahu, one of six gunboats in service on the Yangtze River in China. Such gunboats were nicknamed "“the Yangtze River Rats” and were responsible for patrolling the river to protect American lives and property.
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 (December 1941). After Pearl Harbor those who were left in the outposts of the Far East had one task: to buy time by fending off the Japanese – to hold back the flood as long as possible – at any cost.
The gunboat Oahu operated in Manila Bay on inshore patrol and in support of US forces on Bataan until Bataan fell on 5 April 1942, and then continued to operate about the island fortress of Corregidor until sunk by enemy gunfire 5 May 1942. Lieutenant Williams was taken prisoner on May 6, 1942, at 11 P.M. by the Japanese. He and the other prisoners were taken on a forced march to POW Camp #1 – Cabanatuan, Philippine Islands.
For the next three years, Lieutenant Williams and the other prisoners with him kept going when there seemed to be no hope. They survived starvation, brutality, and torture in disease-ridden POW camps without decent food or water. After two years at Cabanatuan (the “mother” POW camp), Lieutenant Williams was taken to Bilibid Prison in Manila in the fall of 1944. His family received six cards and a partial transcript of a radiogram from him during his years as a POW. His final note was dated 13 December 1944 at which time he told his wife that he was being taken to Japan.
After General MacArthur returned to the Philippines and began taking back the islands, the Japanese began shipping the healthiest POW’s to Japan to be used as slave labor. On December 13, 1944, Lieutenant Williams was one of the 1,619 prisoners marching through Manila’s dusty streets on their way from Bilibid Prison to the Japanese ship Oryoku Maru.
The Oryoku Maru was not marked as a Prison-Of-War vessel. Being unmarked, the ship was bombed and strafed by American planes from the aircraft carrier Hornet on both December 14 and 15. On the morning of December 15, 1944, the Oryoku Maru sank in Subic Bay (Philippine Islands), about 300 yards offshore. Hundreds of men were killed or shot in the water as they tried to escape. A telegram from the US government informed the family that Bill suffocated in the hold of the ship. Later a shipmate who survived sent the family a letter stating that Bill had been injured by the bombs and had died in his arms. His body was never recovered.

Prisoner of War Medal

From Hall of Valor:

Lieutenant Richard B. Williams (NSN: 0-78791), United States Navy, was captured by the Japanese after the fall of Corregidor, Philippine Islands, on 6 May 1942, and was held as a Prisoner of War until his death while still in captivity.
General Orders: NARA Database: Records of World War II Prisoners of War, created, 1942 - 1947
Action Date: May 6, 1942 - Died in Captivity
Service: Navy
Rank: Lieutenant
Company: DS
Division: Prisoner of War (Philippine Islands)

Navy Directories & Officer Registers

The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.

The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.

The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.