Sergeant Adam R. Williams

Adam Ray Williams was born in Gastonia, North Carolina and was married to Mary Bounous Williams. The couple had at least one son named Wallace Lester Williams. Born in 1944. His wife died on 11 September 2016. I was not able to find more information so far about his family life.

Lieutenant Richard A. "Knobby" Knobloch (Co-Pilot, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin) of Crew 13 (know as Lucky Thirteen and nicknamed "The Avenger"), 37th Bomber Squadron was aboard a B-25B Mitchell aircraft, the 13th of 16 aircraft, that also included Edgar E. McElroy (Pilot, of Ennis, Texas),  Clayton J. Campbell (Navigator, of St. Maries, Idaho), Robert C. Bourgeois (Bombardier, of Lecompte, Louisiana) and  Adam Ray Williams (Engineer/Gunner, of Gastonia, North Carolina).

Once above Japan, the crew's target was the Yokosuka Naval Station, the only plane assigned to this location, with the other fifteen planes focusing on various targets: ten to Tokyo, two to Yokohama, two to Nagoya and one to Kobe.

In the memoires of Lieutenant Richard A. "Knobby" Knobloch,  Adam Ray Williams is mentioned a few times. Befroe, during and after bailing out above China.

Above China before bailing out : The indicator was flickering against the empty. We knew it was time to bail out. The pilot, McElroy put the plane on AFCE, and we gathered around the escape hatch, which didn't look very interesting because it's only about two feet square and it's in the bottom of the B-25. You just lifted up a little floor and then you pulled the lever and kicked the hatch out.

And here was this black hole with rain seeping up in, it sort of reminded me of the black hole of Calcutta, which I saw later. Adam Williams was supposed to go first so he started to get out and then crawled back in. He got his legs out and he crawled back up in and he shook hands with all of us and he said, "Well, so long fellows." Then he started to go out again and then he started to crawl back up again and I put my foot on his head and pushed him out and said, "See you on the ground!" 

Sgt. Williams received a wrenched knee when he lit in a tree, but it was OK in a few days. Lt. Knobloch cut his hip when he bailed out, but it healed OK in a few days.

Adam R. Williams left in the picture.

After the pilot an co-pilot of crew 13 bailed out they met each other: We headed toward a village, and then people came out of the village and started to gather. Mac says, "I'll stay out here and protect you and you go in there and see if you can find out where we are". I went into the village and they took me to one of the mud houses and gave me some hot water with an egg in it.....food. I kept trying to talk to them but couldn't. I knew they were Chinese. They knew no English. Finally I heard a voice say, "Do you speak English or American?" It shocked me. I was so surprised that I looked all around, but couldn't find the source. Pretty soon this voice says, "Are you English or American?" And here was a guy right in front of me. I said, " Oh, boy, you speak English!" But that's all he knew.

Crew 13 in China. Left to right: Clayton J. Campbell, Adam R. Williams, Edgar E. McElroy, and Robert C. Bourgeois after being found by Chinese soldiers and civilians. Far left you see Richard Knoloch's leg.

He knew no other word. He didn't know thanks, please, yes, goodbye, north, south, east or west. Knew no other words. I went back out to Mac and said, "They don't know a thing in that village!" So we started to walk again. Pretty soon we came across the other crew members. Adam Williams, had bailed out with two 45's on his cartridge belt. He gave me one so I was finally armed again. We started going through the countryside. A boy about fourteen or sixteen years old ran in front of us, and made noises like a gun and made believe he was shooting. Then got in front of us and pushed us. So we decided that wasn't the right way so we just headed off in another direction.

 37th Bomb Squadron sport team

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