WWII

(1939-1945)
WWII Memorial

It’s estimated that forty to fifty million people died as a result of World War II. When faced with numbers at such a massive scale, it becomes hard to envision these deaths in anything but an abstract. How can we see each of the ones that compose the number fifty million?


The 1988 Causland Park memorial wall features twenty two of these deaths, all servicemen from Anacortes. Some were children as young as eighteen years old, others had children whose lives were forever changed by their passing. Some were eager to serve their country, while others didn’t have a choice. All had lives they left behind and futures that can no longer be imagined. 


A name on a wall only tells so much though, and so the Museum has begun creating biographies on each of those who were lost. The goal is to paint a picture of who these people were, beyond just their deaths. To put a face to the names and a life to the loss.


And as we leave here today, may each one of us say ‘“No more, no more, no more!”

-Mayor Jim Rice 1988 Wall Dedication Speech

THE MEMORIALIZED

-Cpl. Barney Marvin Allen

Died, Japanese prison ship - October 24, 1944

-Phillip Olander Allen

Died, Italy - October 21, 1944

-M/Sgt. Robert Lee Allen

Died, Japanese prison camp - July 3, 1942

-Pvt. Rodger D. Andrews

Died, European Theatre - June 6, 1944

-P.F.C. John Walter Barber

Reported killed at Zone-Baumberg, Germany - April 1, 1945

-Fireman 1/c Arthur D. Blackrud

Died, Savo Island, Guadalcanal, August 8, 1942

-Corp. Archie Eugene Brown

Died, Belgium - January 1, 1945

-Staff Sergeant Kenneth G. Detwiler

Died, January 28, 1945

-T/Sgt. William J. Dwelley

Missing over Holland - Dec 13, 1943

-T/Sgt. Patrick H. George

Died, Germany - January 31, 1945

-S 1/c Albert James Gray

Died, Arizona at Pearl Harbor - December 7, 1941

-Corp. Robert Hammarlund

Died, Southwest Pacific Area - January 14, 1945

-Pvt. Clayton G. Kingston

Killed in Italy - October 8, 1944

-1st Lt. Herbert O. Leckman

Killed in Action - 1944

-Roy Robert McKinley

Infantry, 80 Division - Died, Sept. 7, 1944

-Pvt. 1/c Kenneth E. Mitchell

Died, Okinawa - June 24, 1945

-Seaman 2/C Lloyd Jean Rodin

Missing in Kurile Islands Submarine S-44 - October 7, 1943

-Staff Sergeant Oakley A. Simon

Died - May 26, 1945

-Fireman 1/c Harding A. Smith

Died, South Pacific - December 8, 1942

-1st Lt. Jay V. Thomson

Died, European Theatre - July 14, 1944

-Corp. Richard Bliss White

Died, Guadalcanal - January 19, 1943

-2nd Lt. Lloyd A. Wilson

Died, Brunswick, Germany - March 23, 1944

Dedicated November 11, 1988