We lost Will just 6 weeks after his beautiful wife Whitney gave birth to their first child, Connor. I live every day to honor his memory and hope to live up to the high standards and ideals he lived by. Every day is a challenge due to that permanent empty chair but he would demand we go on and live the best life possible. Not everyone in life gets to meet their hero. I was blessed to have raised mine.
Will was a highly decorated Sailor. He scored a 98 on the ASVAB. He was the honor grad for A School for Sonar Techs. He served aboard the USS Chafee for over 4 years. On his last deployment in 2017 the Chafee suffered a total casualty of the Array, the antenna that allowed Sonar to function. Without it, they were blind to what was below. It was unspooling with no way to stop it or retrieve. According to his commanders, he devised a process to retrieve it and it worked affording the ship to return to Pearl Harbor solo. Had it unspooled totally, that $6.5 million dollar piece of equipment would have been lost at sea. Now every ship in the Navy has a manual with that procedure and Will's name on the cover. The Navy so honored him by naming the Winch Room aboard the Chafee in his honor.
