F3c Millard Charles Bishop

Millard Charles Bishop was born Aug. 9, 1921, at Albertville in northeast Alabama. His mother, Dessy Thomas Bishop, was a homemaker and his father, John, a farmer.

Millard, the youngest of seven children, attended local schools and First Methodist Church, where he was active in youth groups. By the fall of 1940 he’d completed 10th grade at Albertville High School.

Millard enlisted in the Navy on October 4, 1940, and completed his basic training at the Naval Training Station in Norfolk, VA. He reported for duty aboard the U.S.S. Arizona on December 4, 1940. He was a fireman third class when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

A Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Albertville was organized in 1945 and named in his honor.

After Millard perished, all 6 of his siblings enlisted in the military for the war effort: brothers, R.B. Bishop, Chester A. Bishop, and Frank L. Bishop;  and sisters, Carrie Bishop, Vanera Bishop, and Rena Bishop

A year after Millard Bishop’s death an aunt, Nettie Thomas Fiquett, wrote a remembrance of him for local newspapers. “His radiant smile will live always in the memory of those who knew him,” she said, describing him as a Christian “in his life and daily example.”

In July 1943, after receiving his Purple Heart, his parents wrote to the Navy:  “Words cannot express our deep appreciation of anything that can be said or done in his honor, for he was a noble boy and we his parents have suffered a great loss in his going.”

Sources: Special thanks to maternal niece Linda Jones for the photo of Millard, info on the family and news clippings.  We greatly appreciate the help! The Albertville (Alabama) Herald; The Fort Payne (Alabama) Journal; The Independent of Robertsdale, Alabama; Census; Navy enlistment records and muster roll; grave marker. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona and Operation 85.