• Feb. 24, 1916 – Nov. 26, 1943
• Dixon Springs in Smith County, Tennessee 
• Studied Liberal Arts from 1934 to 1937
• Technical Sergeant
• Served as a Top Turret Gunner on a B-17 for the 366th Bomber Squadron, 305th Bomber Group, US Army Air Forces
• Enlisted on April 11, 1942, at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia
• William was “Killed In Action” along with 8 other crew members when his B-17 was shot down by enemy aircraft and crashed near Rastede, South of Oldenburg, Germany during the war. He was awarded the Air Medal and the Purple Heart.
  He was originally interred in Belgium and was later repatriated here on August 26, 1949.

William Henry Cox (Feb. 24, 1916 – Nov. 26, 1943) was from Dixon Springs in Smith County, Tennessee. He attended the University of Tennessee while studying Liberal Arts from 1934 to 1937. When the United States entered World War II, He enlisted in the Army Air Corps and completed his training at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, in the spring of 1942. He completed his training as a Technical Sergeant and was assigned to the 366th Bomber Squadron of the Army Air Corps’ 305th Bomber Group. T/Sgt. Cox was deployed to the European theatre in 1943 and served as a top turret gunner on board B-17’s conducting bombing raids on the continent. On November 26, 1943, he was killed in action alongside eight other members of his crew when their B-17 was shot down by enemy aircraft near Rastede, Germany. T/Sgt. Cox was awarded the Air Medal and Purple Heart during his service and was originally buried in Belgium before he was repatriated to Arlington National Cemetery in 1949. He is also memorialized at Dixon Springs Cemetery in Dixon Springs, Tennessee.

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