William Charles Berry

William Charles Berry enlisted into the US Army Air Forces Enlisted Reserve on Nov. 2, 1942, in Asheville, North Carolina. He was called into service on April 3, 1943, and sent to Pre-Flight Training at Maxwell Army Airfield in Alabama. He then went to Selman Army Air Field in Louisiana, where he completed more training before being given leave in early-1944. He returned home before heading to Bombardier Training at Roswell, New Mexico in March 1944. He was then transferred to Victorville, California, where he served as an instructor. After this, Berry was sent to Columbia, South Carolina, in January 1945. On Feb. 6, 1945, he was sent to Alaska where he served as a navigator on a B-25 Mitchell bomber. On May 19, 1945, Berry's crew and seven other B-25s took off from Attu Island, Alaska for a bombing run on a radar and cannery installation on Shimshu Island, part of the Kuril Island chain. Second Lieutenant Berry's B-25 was hit by enemy flak and they crashed into the sea while attempting to reach friendly territory. Berry's remains have never been recovered and he is memorialized at Oak Grove Cemetery in Portage, Wisconsin, and at the Courts of the Missing in Honolulu, Hawaii.