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Willard John Rempel

Mountain Lake High, Mountain Lake, Minnesota, Class of 1940

Lieutenant Junior Grade assigned to the USS Bunker Hill as a Naval Aviator flying the Grumman F6F Hellcat.

Distinguished Flying Cross with Gold Star

Air Medal with 3 Gold Stars

Purple Heart

MLHS, The Lakers, 1939 Minnesota State Basketball Champions.

Narrative

KIA 11 May 1945 and was buried at sea.

USS Bunker Hill lost a total of 346 sailors and airmen killed on that day, 43 more missing (and never found), and 264 wounded.

On the morning of 11 May 1945, while supporting the invasion of Okinawa, Bunker Hill was struck and severely damaged by two Japanese kamikaze planes. A Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter plane piloted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Seiz? Yasunori emerged from low cloud cover, dove toward the flight deck and dropped a 550-pound (250 kilogram) bomb that penetrated the flight deck and exited from the side of the ship at gallery deck level before exploding in the ocean.[10] The Zero next crashed onto the carrier's flight deck, destroying parked warplanes full of aviation fuel and ammunition, causing a large fire. The remains of the Zero went over the deck and dropped into the sea. Then, a short 30 seconds later, a second Zero, piloted by Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa, plunged into its suicide dive. The Zero went through the antiaircraft fire, dropped a 550-pound bomb, and then crashed into the flight deck near the carrier's "island", as kamikazes were trained to aim for the island superstructure. The bomb penetrated the flight deck and exploded in the pilot's ready room. Gasoline fires flamed up and several explosions took place.