Two young men from the midwest arrived at Marine Corps boot camp in San Diego in June 1940. Robert England Windle and Lamar Crawford became fast friends.
They were assigned to the U.S.S. Arizona and shipped out in September to meet the battleship in Hawaii. Meanwhile, they made what Mr. Crawford called a solemn pact. "If ever one of us were to be killed in action or captured by the enemy, the other would write to the mother of the man so indisposed."
That sad task fell to Mr. Crawford when Mr. Windle, a gunnery private first class, was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.
Mr. Crawford, who held the same rank, was helpless at his battle station as the Arizona was bombed, exploded and sank. Ordered by a senior officer to abandon ship, he jumped in the water to try to swim to nearby Ford Island. He was fortunate to be picked up by two sailors in a motorboat, and they proceeded to pluck even more men from the oily, fiery water.
Meanwhile, back in Jerseyville, Illinois, Mr. Windle's widowed mother received a telegram from the military on Dec. 16 saying that her son was missing in action. She heard nothing more until Jan. 11 when the letter arrived from Mr. Crawford.
"I cannot find the words to convey my feelings upon this occasion," he wrote. "However, had it been otherwise, I'm sure that Bob would have carried out the bargain much sooner and with greater finesse than I could ever muster."
He said there was no chance his buddy survived a bomb's direct hit in the area near his battle station.
"Please try to understand this, Mrs. Windle, Bob didn't lose his life -- he gave it, and I had a thousand times rather it had been mine, than to have to write a letter to his mother, such as this one."
Mr. Crawford's letter was read later that month at a memorial service at Jersey Township High School, from which Mr. Windle graduated in 1940. "The student body stood at attention in silent tribute," the local newspaper reported. A requiem high Mass was sung a few days after at St. Francis Xavier Church, where Mr. England had once been an altar boy. Streets in the business district of Jerseyville, a town of 4,800 in western Illinois, were lined with American flags.
Mr. England was born on Sept. 25, 1921, to Willie Bob Windle, a tax assessor, and Carolyn England Windle, a homemaker. The father, a Navy veteran of World War I, died of a heart condition in Arkansas in 1937. The mother and son then moved to Jerseyville to live with her father, Ben England. The boy played football in high school and sang with the senior mixed chorus.
After his death the Jersey County War Dads named their group in his memory in 1944. One of their first missions was to erect three roadside shelters for hitchhiking servicemen. Hitchhiking was popular during the war because gasoline was rationed and few young men could afford vehicles.
Mr. Crawford served in the Marines until 1946. He was 91 when he died in 2012.
Sources: The Alton (Illinois) Evening Telegraph; the Associated Press; the Longview (Texas) News-Journal; Census; Arkansas death certificate; application for military headstone; the Perry County (Arkansas) News. Marine photograph. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.
Contributor: USS Arizona Mall Memorial at University of Arizona (50022871)
Windle joined the Marines from Chicago on June 14, 1940. After completing boot camp and Sea School at San Diego. Pvt Robert Windle, along with Privates James Cory, Lamar Crawford, and Donald Young, were assigned to the USS Arizona at the same time. Crawford would later recall their voyage: "The four of us made our first ocean voyage on board the Navy Ammunition Transportation ship USS Nitro, via the Naval Ammunition Depot at Mare Island in San Francisco Bay, arriving at Pearl Harbor, on 18 September 1940. We reported for duty aboard the USS Arizona that same day." PFC Windle was killed on December 7, 1941, when the Arizona was sunk at Pearl Harbor. His three companions, Cory, Crawford, and Young, defied the odds and survived the attack.
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Entered the service from Illinois.
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The 1940 census shows 18-year-old Robert E. Windle living in Jerseyville, Jersey, IL with his grandfather, 78-year-old widower Benjamin C. England, but it also clearly shows that Robert was born in Arkansas.
They were assigned to the U.S.S. Arizona and shipped out in September to meet the battleship in Hawaii. Meanwhile, they made what Mr. Crawford called a solemn pact. "If ever one of us were to be killed in action or captured by the enemy, the other would write to the mother of the man so indisposed."
That sad task fell to Mr. Crawford when Mr. Windle, a gunnery private first class, was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.
Mr. Crawford, who held the same rank, was helpless at his battle station as the Arizona was bombed, exploded and sank. Ordered by a senior officer to abandon ship, he jumped in the water to try to swim to nearby Ford Island. He was fortunate to be picked up by two sailors in a motorboat, and they proceeded to pluck even more men from the oily, fiery water.
Meanwhile, back in Jerseyville, Illinois, Mr. Windle's widowed mother received a telegram from the military on Dec. 16 saying that her son was missing in action. She heard nothing more until Jan. 11 when the letter arrived from Mr. Crawford.
"I cannot find the words to convey my feelings upon this occasion," he wrote. "However, had it been otherwise, I'm sure that Bob would have carried out the bargain much sooner and with greater finesse than I could ever muster."
He said there was no chance his buddy survived a bomb's direct hit in the area near his battle station.
"Please try to understand this, Mrs. Windle, Bob didn't lose his life -- he gave it, and I had a thousand times rather it had been mine, than to have to write a letter to his mother, such as this one."
Mr. Crawford's letter was read later that month at a memorial service at Jersey Township High School, from which Mr. Windle graduated in 1940. "The student body stood at attention in silent tribute," the local newspaper reported. A requiem high Mass was sung a few days after at St. Francis Xavier Church, where Mr. England had once been an altar boy. Streets in the business district of Jerseyville, a town of 4,800 in western Illinois, were lined with American flags.
Mr. England was born on Sept. 25, 1921, to Willie Bob Windle, a tax assessor, and Carolyn England Windle, a homemaker. The father, a Navy veteran of World War I, died of a heart condition in Arkansas in 1937. The mother and son then moved to Jerseyville to live with her father, Ben England. The boy played football in high school and sang with the senior mixed chorus.
After his death the Jersey County War Dads named their group in his memory in 1944. One of their first missions was to erect three roadside shelters for hitchhiking servicemen. Hitchhiking was popular during the war because gasoline was rationed and few young men could afford vehicles.
Mr. Crawford served in the Marines until 1946. He was 91 when he died in 2012.
Sources: The Alton (Illinois) Evening Telegraph; the Associated Press; the Longview (Texas) News-Journal; Census; Arkansas death certificate; application for military headstone; the Perry County (Arkansas) News. Marine photograph. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.
Contributor: USS Arizona Mall Memorial at University of Arizona (50022871)
Windle joined the Marines from Chicago on June 14, 1940. After completing boot camp and Sea School at San Diego. Pvt Robert Windle, along with Privates James Cory, Lamar Crawford, and Donald Young, were assigned to the USS Arizona at the same time. Crawford would later recall their voyage: "The four of us made our first ocean voyage on board the Navy Ammunition Transportation ship USS Nitro, via the Naval Ammunition Depot at Mare Island in San Francisco Bay, arriving at Pearl Harbor, on 18 September 1940. We reported for duty aboard the USS Arizona that same day." PFC Windle was killed on December 7, 1941, when the Arizona was sunk at Pearl Harbor. His three companions, Cory, Crawford, and Young, defied the odds and survived the attack.
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Entered the service from Illinois.
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The 1940 census shows 18-year-old Robert E. Windle living in Jerseyville, Jersey, IL with his grandfather, 78-year-old widower Benjamin C. England, but it also clearly shows that Robert was born in Arkansas.
Two young men from the midwest arrived at Marine Corps boot camp in San Diego in June 1940. Robert England Windle and Lamar Crawford became fast friends.
They were assigned to the U.S.S. Arizona and shipped out in September to meet the battleship in Hawaii. Meanwhile, they made what Mr. Crawford called a solemn pact. "If ever one of us were to be killed in action or captured by the enemy, the other would write to the mother of the man so indisposed."
That sad task fell to Mr. Crawford when Mr. Windle, a gunnery private first class, was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.
Mr. Crawford, who held the same rank, was helpless at his battle station as the Arizona was bombed, exploded and sank. Ordered by a senior officer to abandon ship, he jumped in the water to try to swim to nearby Ford Island. He was fortunate to be picked up by two sailors in a motorboat, and they proceeded to pluck even more men from the oily, fiery water.
Meanwhile, back in Jerseyville, Illinois, Mr. Windle's widowed mother received a telegram from the military on Dec. 16 saying that her son was missing in action. She heard nothing more until Jan. 11 when the letter arrived from Mr. Crawford.
"I cannot find the words to convey my feelings upon this occasion," he wrote. "However, had it been otherwise, I'm sure that Bob would have carried out the bargain much sooner and with greater finesse than I could ever muster."
He said there was no chance his buddy survived a bomb's direct hit in the area near his battle station.
"Please try to understand this, Mrs. Windle, Bob didn't lose his life -- he gave it, and I had a thousand times rather it had been mine, than to have to write a letter to his mother, such as this one."
Mr. Crawford's letter was read later that month at a memorial service at Jersey Township High School, from which Mr. Windle graduated in 1940. "The student body stood at attention in silent tribute," the local newspaper reported. A requiem high Mass was sung a few days after at St. Francis Xavier Church, where Mr. England had once been an altar boy. Streets in the business district of Jerseyville, a town of 4,800 in western Illinois, were lined with American flags.
Mr. England was born on Sept. 25, 1921, to Willie Bob Windle, a tax assessor, and Carolyn England Windle, a homemaker. The father, a Navy veteran of World War I, died of a heart condition in Arkansas in 1937. The mother and son then moved to Jerseyville to live with her father, Ben England. The boy played football in high school and sang with the senior mixed chorus.
After his death the Jersey County War Dads named their group in his memory in 1944. One of their first missions was to erect three roadside shelters for hitchhiking servicemen. Hitchhiking was popular during the war because gasoline was rationed and few young men could afford vehicles.
Mr. Crawford served in the Marines until 1946. He was 91 when he died in 2012.
Sources: The Alton (Illinois) Evening Telegraph; the Associated Press; the Longview (Texas) News-Journal; Census; Arkansas death certificate; application for military headstone; the Perry County (Arkansas) News. Marine photograph. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.
Contributor: USS Arizona Mall Memorial at University of Arizona (50022871)
Windle joined the Marines from Chicago on June 14, 1940. After completing boot camp and Sea School at San Diego. Pvt Robert Windle, along with Privates James Cory, Lamar Crawford, and Donald Young, were assigned to the USS Arizona at the same time. Crawford would later recall their voyage: "The four of us made our first ocean voyage on board the Navy Ammunition Transportation ship USS Nitro, via the Naval Ammunition Depot at Mare Island in San Francisco Bay, arriving at Pearl Harbor, on 18 September 1940. We reported for duty aboard the USS Arizona that same day." PFC Windle was killed on December 7, 1941, when the Arizona was sunk at Pearl Harbor. His three companions, Cory, Crawford, and Young, defied the odds and survived the attack.
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Entered the service from Illinois.
--------------
The 1940 census shows 18-year-old Robert E. Windle living in Jerseyville, Jersey, IL with his grandfather, 78-year-old widower Benjamin C. England, but it also clearly shows that Robert was born in Arkansas.
They were assigned to the U.S.S. Arizona and shipped out in September to meet the battleship in Hawaii. Meanwhile, they made what Mr. Crawford called a solemn pact. "If ever one of us were to be killed in action or captured by the enemy, the other would write to the mother of the man so indisposed."
That sad task fell to Mr. Crawford when Mr. Windle, a gunnery private first class, was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.
Mr. Crawford, who held the same rank, was helpless at his battle station as the Arizona was bombed, exploded and sank. Ordered by a senior officer to abandon ship, he jumped in the water to try to swim to nearby Ford Island. He was fortunate to be picked up by two sailors in a motorboat, and they proceeded to pluck even more men from the oily, fiery water.
Meanwhile, back in Jerseyville, Illinois, Mr. Windle's widowed mother received a telegram from the military on Dec. 16 saying that her son was missing in action. She heard nothing more until Jan. 11 when the letter arrived from Mr. Crawford.
"I cannot find the words to convey my feelings upon this occasion," he wrote. "However, had it been otherwise, I'm sure that Bob would have carried out the bargain much sooner and with greater finesse than I could ever muster."
He said there was no chance his buddy survived a bomb's direct hit in the area near his battle station.
"Please try to understand this, Mrs. Windle, Bob didn't lose his life -- he gave it, and I had a thousand times rather it had been mine, than to have to write a letter to his mother, such as this one."
Mr. Crawford's letter was read later that month at a memorial service at Jersey Township High School, from which Mr. Windle graduated in 1940. "The student body stood at attention in silent tribute," the local newspaper reported. A requiem high Mass was sung a few days after at St. Francis Xavier Church, where Mr. England had once been an altar boy. Streets in the business district of Jerseyville, a town of 4,800 in western Illinois, were lined with American flags.
Mr. England was born on Sept. 25, 1921, to Willie Bob Windle, a tax assessor, and Carolyn England Windle, a homemaker. The father, a Navy veteran of World War I, died of a heart condition in Arkansas in 1937. The mother and son then moved to Jerseyville to live with her father, Ben England. The boy played football in high school and sang with the senior mixed chorus.
After his death the Jersey County War Dads named their group in his memory in 1944. One of their first missions was to erect three roadside shelters for hitchhiking servicemen. Hitchhiking was popular during the war because gasoline was rationed and few young men could afford vehicles.
Mr. Crawford served in the Marines until 1946. He was 91 when he died in 2012.
Sources: The Alton (Illinois) Evening Telegraph; the Associated Press; the Longview (Texas) News-Journal; Census; Arkansas death certificate; application for military headstone; the Perry County (Arkansas) News. Marine photograph. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.
Contributor: USS Arizona Mall Memorial at University of Arizona (50022871)
Windle joined the Marines from Chicago on June 14, 1940. After completing boot camp and Sea School at San Diego. Pvt Robert Windle, along with Privates James Cory, Lamar Crawford, and Donald Young, were assigned to the USS Arizona at the same time. Crawford would later recall their voyage: "The four of us made our first ocean voyage on board the Navy Ammunition Transportation ship USS Nitro, via the Naval Ammunition Depot at Mare Island in San Francisco Bay, arriving at Pearl Harbor, on 18 September 1940. We reported for duty aboard the USS Arizona that same day." PFC Windle was killed on December 7, 1941, when the Arizona was sunk at Pearl Harbor. His three companions, Cory, Crawford, and Young, defied the odds and survived the attack.
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Entered the service from Illinois.
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The 1940 census shows 18-year-old Robert E. Windle living in Jerseyville, Jersey, IL with his grandfather, 78-year-old widower Benjamin C. England, but it also clearly shows that Robert was born in Arkansas.
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