Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Boilermaker 1^st Class William Eugene Blanchard, USN, 24, was killed on December 7, 1941 during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Blanchard was one of 429 crewmen that died aboard the battleship USS Oklahoma, which was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor after sustaining multiple torpedo hits causing the ship to quickly capsize. The remains of Blanchard were positively identified on January 4, 2021 through DNA testing and will be interred in the New Hollywood Cemetery, Elizabeth City. He was awarded the Purple Heart Medal, American Defense Service Medal and World War II Victory Medal posthumously.

Bmkr1c Blanchard is survived by son William Eugene Blanchard and his wife Sandra and grandchildren Christopher Blanchard (Carol Crosswhite); Darin Blanchard (Heather O’Brien); and Stephanie Blanchard (Douglas Smith).

Funeral services with military honors will be held June 7 at 1:56 p.m. in the Sam A. Twiford Veteran Park, 405 E. Church St., Elizabeth City, NC by the Rev. Jason Davis. Burial will be in the New Hollywood Cemetery, Elizabeth City. Twiford Funeral Home, Elizabeth City is serving the family. www.TwifordFH.com.

In lieu of flowers, the Blanchard family humbly requests that donations are made to the Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), the organization that enabled Bmkr1c Blanchard’s remains to be positively identified, so they may continue their remarkable work for other families. Please follow: https://www.dpaa.mil/Contact/Donate-to-the-Mission/ to give.

READ MORE OBITUARIES HERE.