29Jul1931- 26Apr1952
Edison Days
William graduated with the Class of 1949.
Military Service
Rate: Unknown
Branch: United States Navy
Ship: USS Hobson (DMS-26)
William entered the Navy on 10Sep1949. He attended basic training at Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Waukegan, IL. After basic training he was assigned to the USS Hobson, a destroyer mine sweeper.
On 26Apr1952, William and the Hobson were sailing in an aircraft carrier task force 700 miles West of the Azores Islands in the Atlantic Ocean training for an eventual deployment to Korea.
The task force conducted a mock nighttime attack on other ships in the task force with carrier-based aircraft. When the exercise was over, the carrier USS Wasp changed course into the wind to facilitate the recovery of her aircraft. The Hobson misjudged the course of the Wasp and at 10:26pm the Wasp struck the much smaller Hobson amidship. The force of the collision rolled the Hobson over and it broke into 2 pieces. The Hobson sank in 4 minutes.
Of the 237 crew members aboard the Hobson, only 61 men survived. William and 175 of his shipmates went down with the ship.
William’s body was never recovered.
His name is engraved on a memorial at Saint Mary’s Russian Orthodox Cemetery in St. Anthony, Minnesota.
His name is also engraved on the USS Hobson memorial in Charleston, South Carolina.
Edison Heroes 