Baker, Wilbur P.

WILBUR PICKETT BAKER

2nd LIEUTENANT
U.S. ARMY

Wilbur Picket Baker was born on January 23, 1924, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. His parents were Owen Kemp Baker and  Daisy Campbell Cultice Baker. He attended Fort Wayne’s Trinity Episcopal Church with his family. He went to Decatur High School after his father moved to accept a position at the Decatur Daily Democrat, but Wilbur later moved to Central High School in Fort Wayne. In the three years he was in high school, he participated in the band, where he played the trumpet. Wilbur has one brother, Robert, and four sisters: Anna, Elenora, Margaret, and Eldon. 

Wilbur enlisted in the Army National Guard in July of 1940 and was pressed into active service on January 17, 1941. He attended basic military training at Camp Shelby in Mississippi and Officer Candidate School in the fall of 1942 at Fort Benning, GA. Wilbur achieved the rank of Second Lieutenant in the Infantry, serving in the 185th Infantry Regiment of the 40th Infantry Division.

In September of 1942, the 40th Infantry Division was deployed to Hawaii and moved into defensive positions in the outer islands in anticipation of a Japanese attack. Upon graduation from Officer Candidate School in January 1943, 2nd Lieutenant Baker would join the 40th in Hawaii by March 1943. By July of the same year, the division moved to the island of Oahu. 

According to an entry in the May 25, 1943 Decatur Daily Democrat, 2nd Lieutenant Baker had "written to his parents from an undisclosed destination to say that he is plenty busy and that the weather was extremely hot but had moderated some".

In October of 1943, the division took up jungle and amphibious training to prepare for a Japanese invasion. It was during this training that Lt. Baker was killed. According to the official casualty report, "while demonstrating the improper method of dropping a mortar shell into the tube, the shell accidentally slipped and went off". He was buried temporarily at the Oahu Cemetery and later interred at the National Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu, Hawaii Section N Site 1557.

In December 1943, the 40th Infantry Division moved to the island of Guadalcanal to continue training and to assist in the securing of the island. According to the 40th Infantry Division History,  "instead of fighting the Japanese, they had to fight illness and non ideal conditions". The division continued to island hop through the Pacific for the remainder of the war seeing action in Cape Gloucester in New Guinea and assisting with the liberation of the island of Luzon in the Philippines. The division finished the war with occupation duties in Korea by September of 1945.Remaining in Korea until April 1946, the division was inactivated upon return to the states.

For his service and sacrifice, 2nd Lt. Baker was awarded the WWII Victory Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, and the Army Defense Service Medal.

Information researched and compiled by Vanessa Hebble, 2023

SOURCES

"2LT Wilbur P Baker." Find a Grave, www.findagrave.com/memorial/107162783/wilbur-p-baker.

California Militia and National Guard Histories: 40th Infantry Division. 25 June 2018,

"Decatur Soldier Killed in Pacific Area." Berne Witness [Berne], 8 Oct. 1943.

"Indiana, U.S., Birth Certificates, 1907-1944." Ancestry Classroom, Ancestry, www.ancestryclassroom.com/discoveryui- content/view/1925440:60871? tid=&pid=&qu eryId=af23fda3-155e-41bf-917b-0f385d7b8a5f&_phsrc=aEb34&_phstart=successSource.

"U.S., School Yearbooks, 1900-2016 for Wilbur Baker." Ancestry Classroom, Ancestry, 1940, www.ancestryclassroom.com/discoveryui- content/view/365813735:1265? tid=&pid=&qu eryId=45d9c438-925b-4ffe-8dcf-987e4096b336&_phsrc=aEb29&_phstart=successSource. Accessed 19 Dec. 2023.

"US, WWII Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946." fold3, Ancestry, 14 Oct. 2013, www.fold3.com/record/85273871/wilbur-p-baker-us-wwii-army- enlistmentrecords1938-1946. Accessed 19 Dec. 2023.

www.militarymuseum.org/division.html. Accessed 19 Dec. 2023.

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