WILLARD RUSSELL KOEN |
Friends I had worked with at
the Naval Air Primary Training Command were recalled to sea duty and while on shore leave
they sent me a picture of Russell's grave marker a 331 at Halawa Cemetary. I was transferred to NAS Honolulu in March 1945 and
by that time the marker had a cross showing his name.
My first trip off base was to put flowers on his grave.
While I was at NAS Honolulu
a cousin "Jake" Koen from Esther was stationed nearby. We spent a lot of time together. Two other cousins, Dale and Joe Smith, stopped
there on their way back to
I received my discharge from
the Navy in November of 1945 and went back to
From a news story: More than a thousand people formed a funeral
procession for the service last Sunday of Willard Russell Koen, Jr. the first war dead to
return to St. Francois County. The services
were held at the
From a second news story: Willard Russell Koen, Jr., 19, of Leadwood died at
the Naval Hospital in Honolulu on Dec. 22 of a fractured cervical vertebrae he sustained
the previous day.