Bill Dillon the Last Surviving Crew Member of USS Sailfish

Posted on by

Bill Dillon was a submariner on the USS Sailfish, a radioman first class, and collaborated with the author Stephen L. Moore to tell the harrowing story of how the Sailfish sunk a Japanese Carrier.

Bill Dillion was just 17 when he signed up for military service. He received two Bronze Stars, one with valor, but it’s what he did after the war that he says is most important to him. “During the war I was killing people,” he recounts. “After the war I began helping them.”

Today, he is the sole survivor of the 200 men he served with on the Sailfish, and the last American survivor of the battle of Formosa. Bill served in the Navy from May 1942 to November 1947.

After an undefeated football season, Bill quit high school in his junior year to join the Navy. He was sent to submarine school in New London, CT and then assigned to the submarine the USS Sailfish (SS 192). This submarine was formerly the USS Sgualus which had sunk off the coast of New Hampshire during a test dive in 1939. While 26 crew members were lost, there were 33 rescued and the ship was later salvaged and renamed the USS Sailfish.

Bill served on the USS Sailfish from January 1943 until it was decommissioned in 1945. They had 5 Major War Patrols. The Sailfish sunk several Japanese commercial and military vessels, including an aircraft carrier and 2 destroyers. And rescued 12 pilots and crew that had been shot down or run out of fuel during the Battle of Formosa. They took the rescued airmen to Saipan and returned to their combat war patrol.

Bill remained in the service and got married January 5, 1946 to, Janet, his high school sweetheart. Bill received his GED and applied for college the same date and graduated in June 1951 from the University of Florida.

The U.S. space industry was just beginning, and I became a member of the launch team that placed the first U.S. satellite into orbit. He worked on several different programs including 13 down-range tracking sites; developing the first electronic checkout of launch vehicles; the initial working on the GPS system for Assistant Defense Secretary David Packard; served as Solid Rocket Booster Manager for the Air Force Titan 3 Program; and become the Systems Design Manager for the highly secret system of satellite-tracking all vehicles in space. Receiving a major citation.

Bill and his late wife, Janet, were married for 72 years and had 7 children. There are now 12 grandchildren and 12 great- grandchildren and the family is still growing.

Read more about Bill Dillon HERE.

Read more about “Strike of the Sailfish” HERE.

Leave a comment