George Williams, Jr. was born on March 23, 1919. They lived in the Panama Canal Zone, then moved to Evanston, Illinois where he graduated from Evanston High School in 1937. He then joined the Illinois National Guard. His mind made up to become an Army officer, George attended the Colonel Beanie Millard West Point Preparatory School in Washington, D.C. for one year; passed the examinations; was awarded an appointment to the United States Military Academy as the number one candidate of the Illinois National Guard and entered with the Class of 1942 on 1 July 1938.

After graduation on 29 May 1942 into Infantry, George immediately entered flight training, with detail in the Army Air Corps; he was awarded the aeronautical designation of pilot on 26 November 1942 and transferred permanently to the Army Air Corps.

In the next fifteen months, he was selected to provide much needed leadership and pilot instructor training effort in medium bomber aircraft, involving first the B26 Martin Marauder and later the B25 North American Mitchel airplanes. This work took him to Tarrant Field, Fort Worth, Texas and to Del Rio, Texas. On 2 February 1943 he was promoted to first lieutenant. Then, he was assigned to the Roswell Army Flying School, Roswell, New Mexico; and on to Columbia Army Air Base, South Carolina, in B25 aircraft. From South Carolina, he was assigned to the 341st Bomb Group (M), Tenth Air Force, Agra, India, flying one of the first B25 aircraft, equipped with the 75mm nose cannon, across the Atlantic Ocean, via Iceland, Scotland and Europe to India. Once in India, he was further assigned to the 491st Bomb Squadron (M) and flew B25 aircraft out of India and Southwest China.

George Williams made his last flight, on a dangerous night mission—from which he did not return, lost on 5 March 1944, just four days after being made a flight leader and promoted to captain. The wreckage of his airplane was found in late May 1944, forty miles south of Yankai, China. His name is commemorated on the Walls of the Missing, Manila American Cemetery, Taguig City, Philippines.

CPT Williams was one of over 2000 Americans who lost their lives defending China from their Japanese invaders from 1941-1945. He is also commemorated on the The Monument to the Aviation Martyrs in the War of Resistance Against Japan in Nanjing, China.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, www.abmc.gov