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753. Pensacola's November Loss 11-29-1944 WWII

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Updated: Feb 27, 2022

US Navy Seaman 1st Class Willard Junior Coleman was born in Northwest Florida on February 26, 1925, the son of Claude Coleman (1899-) and Sallie Louise Gibson (1907-1988). His mother married Claude on August 23, 1924 in Walton County of which Willard was the result of this union. However, things didn't work out and Sallie would marry again to William H. "Bud" Helton (1898-1951). In 1942, Bud was working for Stanley Sweeney at City Hall and living with Sallie at 318 South Barcelona Street. As far as his father, there is very little information past this point as to his whereabouts or fate. During this period of time Willard went to live in the Gonzales community with his maternal grandparents Willis Long Gibson (1883-1937) and Cora E. Godwin (1887-1956) prior to 1930. The Gibson house was always full with aunts and uncles and cousins galore so Willard had plenty of company.


Given the location of his grandparent's home, Willard naturally became a student at Tate High School. However, he did not finish and enlisted in the US Navy instead on September 4, 1942. He was sent to basic training at Great Lakes, Illinois. At this point of the war, sailors and soldiers were needed so desperately that they received only rudimentary training stateside and obtained the rest on the job. Given this predicament, he was sent to the South Pacific and stationed aboard the destroyer USS Aulick (DD-569) on October 27, 1942.


On November 25, 1944, the Aulick was operating in Leyte Gulf in the Philippines with Task Group 77.2. In this capacity, she was on antisubmarine patrol in the east entrance of the Gulf on November 29. Suddenly, six Japanese planes came out of the sky and attacked her at 1750 hours. One enemy plane dropped a bomb that missed the destroyer just twenty yards off her port bow. Then another came in so low that it its wing tip struck the Aulick's starboard bridge and crashed into her. The explosion and resulting fire killed 31 sailors, wounding 64 more with one missing. Still operable the destroyer sailed into San Pedro Bay between Leyte and Samar Island and off loaded her dead and wounded in addition to making emergency repairs. By Christmas Eve, she was back at Pearl Harbor for permanent repairs and a return to the war.


But sadly, one of those sailors who perished was Seaman 1st Class Willard Junior Coleman. He was offloaded and buried in one of the military cemeteries close by together with the soldiers killed in the initial Leyte landings in October. After the war, his family petitioned for his remains to be returned to Pensacola. His body arrived in August 1948 and was buried in the Whitmire Cemetery with full military honors bestowed on the young man.














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