• October 23, 1921 – August 2, 1944
• Born in Richmond, VA
• Attended Knoxville High School
• Fire Control man 2 Class (United States Navy Reserve)
• Liberal Arts 1933-1937
• Worked for TVA after graduation in Financial Department
• Ship: USS Fiske (DE 143)
  Mission: hunter-killer Task Group 22.6
  Loss Date: 02-Aug-44
  Location: 47° 11’N, 33° 29’W – Grid BD 5513
  Fate: Sunk by U-804 (Herbert Meyer)
  Complement: 186 officers and men (30 dead and 156 survivors)
• On 2 Aug, 1944, the USS Fiske (DE 143) was part of the hunter-killer Task Group 22.6 formed around the escort carrier USS Wake Island (CVE 65) and was detached together with the destroyer escort USS Douglas L. Howard (DE 138) to investigate a visual contact about 800 miles east of Cape Race, Newfoundland. The surfaced U-804 quickly dived and fired at 15.36 hours three Gnats on the approaching ships. The first missed, but after 3 minutes the second hit the USS Fiske on her starboard side amidships and the third struck her after 4 minutes 30 seconds, breaking her in two. The survivors, among them 50 wounded men abandoned ship and were picked up by the destroyer escort USS Farquhar (DE 139), which took them to Argentina for medical attention and then to Boston.
  • https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/60961165/william-gayle-essex
• Lynnhurst Cemetery, Knoxville, Tennessee and Tablets of the Missing at the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial in Cambridgeshire, England

William Gayle Essex (October 23, 1921 – August 2, 1944) was born in Richmond, Virginia, but graduated Knoxville High School before attending the University of Tennessee for Liberal Arts in the Class of 1937. After graduation, Essex worked for TVA’s financial department before the war. Essex enter the United States Naval Reserves and served as a Fire Controlman 2nd Class on board the USS Fiske (DE 143) in 1943. The USS Fiske was a destroyer escort assigned to a hunter-killer anti-submarine group operating in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. On August 2nd, it was investigating a visual contact of a German U-Boat 800 miles east of Newfoundland alongside the USS Douglas L. Howard when it was torpedoed by U-804. The USS Fiske was hit in the starboard side, splitting it into two, and forcing the crew to abandon ship. FC2C Essex was killed alongside 29 other crewmembers in the sinking of the ship. He is memorialized at Lynnhurst Cemetery in Knoxville, Tennessee and is on the Tablets of the Missing at the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial in Cambridgeshire, England.  

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