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William M. Thompson lived at 80 Pollard Road, and graduated from Morristown High School in 1937 along with fellow fallen Laker Edwin Sanders. The yearbook editors were effusive in their compliments about Bill, writing that "we've always marveled at this Mountain Lakes boys' many and varied accomplishments. Bill has an impressive desire to be a millionaire, and deserves to make good--whether at music, acting, athletics, and writing." In fact, he was even voted "most musical" by his classmates.
While at the University of North Carolina, Bill was a member of the swimming team for three years and secretary of Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He was on the debate squad his freshman year, was a member of the University band for two years and the University symphony orchestra for three years. He also was a member of Sound and Fury, a musical comedy club. After graduation in 1941, Thompson entered the Navy and was an ensign serving aboard the battleship USS Oklahoma.
Bill was the first WWII casualty from Mountain Lakes. He died on December 7, 1941 when the USS Oklahoma, was attacked at Pearl Harbor. The Oklahoma took three torpedo hits almost immediately after the first Japanese bombs fell. As she began to capsize, two more torpedoes struck home. The slowly moving battleship provided an attractive target for Japanese dive bombers, which hit Bill’s ship repeatedly starting gasoline fires and causing flooding. With her port side torn open over much of its length, the Oklahoma rapidly rolled over and sank to the harbor bottom, with the loss of over 400 of her crew, including our very own Bill Thompson.
Much to his parents' anguish, Bill's body was never identified. His remains were interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Punchbowl Crater, Honolulu, Hawaii until 2017 when DNA helped in identifying his skull. According to a recent Daily Record article, Bill's remains "will be escorted home from Hawaii by the Navy and buried at the Thompson family plot in Virginia," 76 years after being killed at Pearl Harbor.
Newsreel footage from Castle Entertainment: Bombing of Pearl Harbor (1942)
World War II Causalities
Charles E. Butts David T Powell Edwin T Sanders Frederick Walker Castle Gilbert Cole
Gilbert H. Higgins Jr, Howard B. Larlee J. Gilbert Jones John V. Theim Quin P. Turkington
Robeson Sherrerd Thomas B. Stickney William M. Thompson W. Richard Fleming, Jr
Conflicts in which Lakers Served & Sacrificed
World War I World War II Korean War Vietnam War Post-Vietnam
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