Rank and Name, Seaman First Class Elwood Leslie Akers.
Unit/placed in, USS Bush (DD-529) Destroyer, United States Navy.
Elwood was born in 1926 Virginia.
Father, Martin Akers.
Mother, Virginia (White) Akers.
Sister, Geneva L. Akers.
Elwood entered the service from Virginia with service number # 6596390.
Elwood was KIA when the USS Bush was Sunk by Kamikaze Planes, on April 6, 1945, he is honored with a Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal and the WWII Victory Medal.
Elwood is buried/mentioned at Honolulu Memorial, Honolulu, Honolulu County, Hawaii, USA.
Courts of the missing.
Thanks to http://www.ussbush.com/ Jean Louis Vijgen, ABMC, https://abmc.gov Info P.O.W.
Wes Injerd, Dwight Rider: http://www.mansell.com/pow-index.html
NavyLog, http://navylog.navymemorial.org Philippine Scouts Heritage Society, Sean Conjenos, http://www.philippine-scouts.org/
Familysearch.com, https://www.familysearch.org Navy Marines Info Geoffrey Roecker, https://missingmarines.com/ Medals Info, http://www.honorstates.org Website, https://hendrikswebdesign.nl/
USS Bush
Between 29 July and 27 November 1943 USS Bush acted as a patrol and escort vessel in Alaskan waters. Arriving at Pearl Harbor4 December 1943, she commenced operations as a patrol, escort, and fire support ship throughout the Pacific, from the Ellice Islands to New Guinea, the Philippines, and Okinawa. She participated in the Bismarck Archipelago operations, including the Cape Gloucester, New Britain landings and the Admiralty Islands landings (26 December 1943 – 31 March 1944); Saidor, New Guinea, operations (18–21 January); Morotai landings (15 September); Leyte landings (20–24 October), Luzonoperation, including the Mindoro and Lingayen Gulf landings (12–18 December 1944 and 4–18 January 1945); Iwo Jimaoperation (19 February–9 March); and the Okinawa operation (1–6 April).
On 1 November 1944, while operating in Leyte Gulf, Bush splashed two of ten Japanese planes during a severe air attack. She was showered by flying shrapnel and suffered two men wounded.
Bush was operating as radar picket ship off Okinawa 6 April 1945 and had splashed at least one plane when she was hit and subsequently sunk by three Japanese kamikazes. At 1515, the first plane hit at the deck level on the starboard side between number one and two stacks causing its bomb or torpedo to explode in the forward engine room. Although much damage was sustained the ship was not believed to be in severe danger and tugs were requested. Colhoun was closing in to assist when she was hit by a suicide plane and was so severely damaged that she had to be sunk by United States forces.
At 1725, a second kamikaze crashed into the port side of Bush’s main deck between the stacks, starting a large fire and nearly severing the ship. At 1745, a third crashed onto the port side just above the main deck. Some of the ship’s ammunition caught fire and began to explode. Although it was believed that she would break amidships, it was thought that both halves would be salvageable. However, an unusually heavy swell rocked the ship, and Bush began to cave in amidships. Other swells followed, and the ship was abandoned by her 227 survivors just before she folded and sank. 87 of her crew were lost.
