William Llewelyn Case was born in Kent, Ohio to William L. Case and Florence Case on July 19, 1926. He was not a JR as his father apparently had a different middle name, although he called himself a "jr". He enlisted in the Navy in Cleveland July 20, 1943 the day after he turned 17. At that time he was 6 feet tall and weighed 182 pounds. He was assigned to Great Lakes Naval Training Station July 31, 1943. Case was transferred to a station in New Orleans December 21, 1943. He reported aboard the USS Skylark on March 13, 1944. The ship was in the Pacific at the time, but there is no info on how he got there. Case was up graded to F1C from F2C on September 1, 1944. He was first listed as MIA and then revised to KIA on May 11, 1945.
The USS Skylark was an AUK Class minesweeper that was 200 feet long and made of steel. She served in the Pacific from the first of 1943 until her sinking April 28, 1945. She struck a mine in the morning that date that damaged her port side amidships. While fighting to save the ship, she struck another mine that sunk her in 15 minutes. F1C Case was one of 5 sailors killed in that action.
The Case group consists of his officially engraved Type 2 posthumous Purple Heart with its short titled presentation case. Also included is his file from the National Archives, Muster Rolls and geneology data from Ancestry.com.
