WWII Veteran Ellis “Willie” Williamson will celebrate his 102nd birthday with a party from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Onalaska Fire Station located at 181 Old Groveton Rd. in Onalaska and is inviting everyone to join him in the celebration.
Williamson served in the 397th – 599th Army Air Corp of the U.S. Air Force as a staff sergeant flight engineer/gunner. Hailing from Gallatin, Texas, Williamson was born April 16, 1923 and graduated from Gallatin High School in June 1941. He reported for duty to the Army Air Corp in Houston in February 1943 and went on to Kessler Air Force Base in Mississippi for basic training, then Fort Meyer, Fla. for flight training, gunnery and aerial gunnery training.
In mid-1944 he shipped out with the 397th BG to Rivenhall, England until D-Day and was then based in Dreux, France. He was assigned as a flight engineer/gunner on a B26 marauder bomber and his duties were to double check the ground crew’s preparation for light, make sure the gas tanks were full, battle damage repaired and then man the top turret as gunner.
William was a prisoner of war from Dec. 23, 1944 until he was liberated at the end of April, 1945.
Afterward, Williamson was awarded the Air Medal with two silver oak leaf clusters and two bronze clusters and several others. He worked from then on, retiring three times in his life. He retired in 1979 after 30-plus years as a paint salesman with Celanese Coating Co. He retired the second time in 1983 after owning and operating 18-wheelers. He retired for the third and last time in 1990 after seven years in sales at Devoe Paint.
His wife of 45 years, Antoinette, passed in 1990. They had three children, four grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren. He remarried Priscilla Carrick and gained two stepdaughters but she passed in 2020.
As for his time in the service, he said, “I wouldn’t give anything for it, but I wouldn’t want to do it again.”
