US Navy Lieutenant William Henry Stimson was born in DeSmet, Kingsbury County, South Dakota on March 25, 1919, the son of Nathaniel George Stimson (1894-1988) and Grace M. Ruskell (1894-1958). His parents had both lived in De Smet, South Dakota but married on June 6, 1918 in Woodbury, Iowa. Prior to his marriage to Grace, Nathaniel had gone to work for the Chicago & North Western Railroad Company in 1910 at the age of 16. His own father had also been a station agent for the company in Iroquois, SD in 1900 and Nathaniel followed in his footsteps. During his career Nathaniel would occupy various positions beginning as a depot agent in De Smet, South Dakota in 1910. There, he stayed as an agent and telegrapher until the 1930's. By 1940, he had transferred to Highmore where he would eventually retire in 1969. He would return to De Smet to pass away in 1988.
As for William, he would graduate there from Lake Preston High School in De Smet in 1938 before enrolling as a student at South Dakota State University at Brookings, South Dakota. He would enter the US Navy's V-5 flight training program as a cadet on May 19, 1941, at the US Naval Reserve Base in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He would eventually report to Pensacola where he would serve as a flight instructor. While stationed here it was not long before his spiffy white uniform caught the eye of Pensacolian Goldie Maxine Johnson (1922-1964) and they were married in 1942. She had attended Tate High School in the Class of 1940, however had not graduated. She was the daughter of a local farmer by the name of James Franklin Johnson (1886-1966) and his wife Allie Miller (1897-1973).
When WW II finally came to America's doorstep, Stimson was assigned to the VPB-116 squadron where he piloted a Navy PB4Y-1 Consolidated patrol bomber. His squadron was commissioned at Camp Kearney in San Diego on February 1, 1944 where their logo was designed by Walt Disney. Their record of 210 ships sunk, 274 ships damaged, and 58 enemy aircraft destroyed speaks for itself. They flew over 300 missions, averaging 11 hours per mission, for a total of 205,235 tons destroyed. The squadron was so well-known to the enemy that even the infamous "Tokyo Rose" mentioned the "Blue Raiders" in a Japanese radio transmission and the nickname stuck.
In this capacity, Stimson and his crew were recorded as attacking and bombing a Japanese patrol ship at masthead level in spite of intense anti-aircraft fire. After the initial bomb run, the enemy vessel could only proceed at a greatly reduced speed but was almost dead in the water. Stimson made five more low level strafing runs that soon set the Jap ship ablaze. Although Stimson did not claim positive proof that he sunk the ship, he stated that it was so badly crippled that it was doubtful it ever reached port.
Shortly thereafter, Lt. Stimson was flying a mission off Iwo Jima on October 11, 1944, when he was attacked by Japanese fighters from the enemy squadron 252KU and heavily damaged. Witnesses saw him attacked, but did not see him crash. Two bombers, the "Dazy May" and "Ty Yan Ty Foo" (Ty Foo lost later with entire crew) were sent up to search for them but when they approached his last site they were attacked by seven more enemy fighters. They shot down six of the seven enemy planes before the lone enemy survivor fled. Nothing was ever found of Stimson and his crew, so they were listed as missing in action. Tokyo Rose would broadcast the downing of Stimson's aircraft and read the names of the crewmembers over the air where it was intercepted up by a short-wave ham radio operator.
Goldie and his parents were notified that William was missing in action and most likely would never be recovered. His name is inscribed on the "Tablets of the Missing" in Honolulu and a memorial headstone was placed for him at the De Smet Cemetery. As for Goldie, she would remarry Norman Dale Finley (1917-1987) on August 10, 1946 in Missouri before passing away herself in 1964.
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