A Marshall County sailor who perished when his ship was attacked off the coast of Italy in 1944 will be memorialized July 4 in a ceremony at Fooks Cemetery.
Jesse Raymond Wilson was a member of the crew of the USS Plunkett, a destroyer which was participating in escort duty on Jan. 24 for the Allied landing at Anzio. The ship was struck by a 550-pound bomb dropped by Nazi aircraft.
According to a history of the ship posted on the website Military.com, 23 were killed and 28 were missing. A total of 53 deaths was reported in a citation awarding the Navy Unit Commendation Medal to the ship’s crew.
Wilson, son of John and Iler Rhinehart Wilson of the Sharpe community, was among those listed as missing. He was presumed dead one year and one day later, on Jan. 25, 1945.
During the ceremony at 2 p.m., a stone with Wilson’s image inscribed by laser will be placed between the headstones of his brother, Leonard Wilson, and sister, Nellie Wilson Wyatt. Military honors will be performed by the honor guard and color guard of William A. Doyle Post 236 of the American Legion.
Wilson’s closest living relatives are two nieces, Barbara Johnson and Patsy Darnell, and a nephew, John Wayne Wilson, all of Marshall County.