US Army PFC Wilson H. Moss was born in Alabama on April 8, 1915, however there is very little substantial information as to his parents or background. We do know that he married Sadie E. Walton (1914-1995) from Selma, Alabama and by the year 1940 they were living in Kings, Dallas County, Alabama where Wilson is working as a farmer to support Sadie and their newborn son Albert.
We also know that he enlisted during WWII in the US Army on January 22, 1944, and after basic training was assigned to the predominately African American 430th Port Company that was attached to the Transportation Corps. His company was activated on May 1, 1944, at Indiantown Gap Military Reservation, Pennsylvania.
Although the Army needed its fighting force to win the war, none of those troops could enter a battle without the support staff behind them. All vehicles, ammunition, weapons, food, and every conceivable form of supplies you could think of was needed to sustain any combat role. So, no matter what machines they had to do the work most jobs had to be performed by the individual soldier. The company performed the duties of a stevedore who loaded and unloaded ships, planes, and trucks. These jobs were dangerous, filthy, backbreaking jobs, but had to be performed to win the war.
So when all was said and done Wilson said goodbye to Sadie and Albert at their home at 211 North "D" Street and headed for the South Pacific. His unit would participate in the New Guinea campaign before landing with the invasion force on Luzon in the Philippines sometime after January 9, 1945. Eleven days before the island was "officially" secured PFC Wilson H. Moss was killed or died on August 4, 1945. His death was listed as "DNB" or "Death-Non-Battle." This would include anything from natural causes to accidental deaths, to plane crashes etc. The cause of death is unknown however, he was initially buried in the military cemetery in Manila while Sadie was being notified by the war department.
In 1948, Sadie requested that his remains be returned to her in Pensacola. They were loaded onto the US Army Transport (USAT) "SS Morris E. Crain" and shipped home in September 1948 to a processing center. Then they were transported by rail to Pensacola and buried in the Barrancas National Cemetery with military honors on November 8, 1948.
Sadie would never remarry and would retire from the G. C. Murphy "five & dime" Company and a member of the Elks Orange Blossom Temple #661 and the Trinity Baptist Church. She would pass away on July 3, 1995, and joined her beloved Wilson at Barrancas in death as in life.





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