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NAME Willis Sherman Lees III |
NICKNAME Budge |
SERVICE NUMBER O-9428 |
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| UNIT VMF-223 |
HOME OF RECORD 49 Howard Avenue, Passaic, NJ |
NEXT OF KIN Father, Mr. Willis S. Lees, Jr. |
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| DATE OF BIRTH 1919 |
ENTERED SERVICE May 13, 1941 |
DATE OF LOSS October 2, 1942 |
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| REGION Solomons |
CAMPAIGN / AREA Guadalcanal |
CASUALTY TYPE MIA / Declared Dead 3 October 1943 |
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| CIRCUMSTANCES OF LOSS Second Lieutenant Willis “Budge” Lees was a pilot assigned to VMF-223, part of the Cactus Air Force operating out of Guadalcanal. On 2 October 1942, Lees took off from Henderson Field to intercept a raiding force of Japanese aircraft. His aircraft, F4F-4 Bureau Number 02098 (Squadron #19), was targeted by Lt (j.g.) Katsutoshi Kawamata of the Tainan kokutai. Kawamata shredded the Wildcat with a well-aimed burst. Lieutenant Lees bailed out of his stricken fighter, but was never seen again. He was declared dead on 3 October 1943. |
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| INDIVIDUAL DECORATIONS Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart |
LAST KNOWN RANK Second Lieutenant Posthumous promotion to Captain. |
STATUS OF REMAINS Not recovered. |
MEMORIALS Manila American Cemetery |
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Biography:
Temporarily removed for editing and updating. Contact the webmaster for information on this Marine.
The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to Captain Willis S. Lees (MCSN: 0-9428), United States Marine Corps, for heroism and extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight in combat with the enemy while serving as a Fighter Pilot during the Solomon Islands campaign. During the period from 24 August to 15 September 1942, he shot down two enemy aircraft. Assisted by another Marine Corps Fighter Pilot he shot down a third enemy aircraft while operating with his squadron from the airfield on Guadalcanal. His courage throughout was in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.
Articles and Records:
The Courier-News (Bridgewater, NJ) 18 July 1941.
The Courier-News, 2 June 1942.
An account of the day’s action in the War Diary of MAG-23.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 13 October 1942. News of Lees’ disappearance has not yet been released.
The Sandusky Register (Sandusky, OH) 28 October 1942.
Excerpt from the muster roll of VMF-223, October 1942.
Photo Gallery:
The Aurora yearbook of Heidelberg College, 1940. Lees autographed the volume “to a real bonny lass.”
Bill Lees as a cadet at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi. Slipstream yearbook, 1941.
Lieutenant Lees with VMF-223 on Guadalcanal.
There is little that is more wretched than a parent not just burying their child but not having a grave to visit with their mortal remains. My heart goes out to his family.
I agree completely, Mustang.Koji. My great uncle, Lt. Commander Edmund Billings was lost with the cruiser USS Quincy at the battle of Guadalcanal, and I know there are many in my family (myself included) who wish he had been brought home – as it is, we have only a few pictures and stories, and his name on a wall in Manila – quite far from us on the US east coast.
Especially heartbreaking are the cases where an ID could have been possible, but someone fouled up or didn’t feel like doing the work. The three Marines in the Pending Cases section are basically a dead cert; their families are dying out – Cpl. Ragsdale’s wife remarried and had a family after the war, but she kept trying to find his grave until the day she died in 2007. Or the case of Robert Budd and Tom Phillips, also dead on Guadalcanal – the Army team sent to locate their graves decided to file a bogus report and go on a drinking binge in a nearby town.
The more research that is done, the more cases like this come to light – but also, the more time goes by, making it much harder to locate a site. Already 70 years have come and gone… seven decades too long.
I appreciate your support of MissingMarines, and thanks for the re-blog!
Cheers,
Geoffrey
I am sorry for your own family’s void, Geoffrey. Between your great Uncle Billings, my dearly departed neighbors “Old Man Jack” and “Mr. Johnson”, that makes three – three young men who saw it all.
In addition, while my father served in the US 8th Army’s Military Intelligence Service during the Occupation, his younger brother (also born in Seattle as my father) was killed on Leyte while wearing a sergeant’s uniform of the Japanese Imperial Army. Like your Great Uncle, my Uncle Suetaro’s body was never found either.
Thank you for sharing your family’s involvement, Geoffrey.
Reblogged this on Masako and Spam Musubi and commented:
To know this young, handsome hero went missing when Mr. Johnson was also fighting for life as a Marine aboard the Big E at the same time and locale brings added poignancy to this story… I can but hope that someday he will be found…
Thank you both for the original post and the re-blog. Telling these stories and sharing the sacrifices of such brave men keep the memories of them alive long after they have passed into history.