Menifee WWII veteran's experiences come alive in video

Bill Cormier, shown during World War II and today, served on this minesweeper in the Pacific Theater. Images courtesy of Thom Gradzewicz, Bill Cormier

By Doug Spoon, Editor

Menifee has many veterans with heroic and colorful military backgrounds, but few are as vividly recorded for posterity as that of Wilfred "Bill" Cormier.

Cormier, 96, has lived with his wife Lois in the Oasis retirement community for 21 years. His memories of a four-year stint in the U.S. Navy come clearly to mind as he tells his story to others -- whether in person, in his writings or with a recently produced video.

In the video, entitled "Chronicles of YMS", Cormier describes his personal adventures and the heroism of the thousands of sailors who manned minesweeper ships during World War II. Yard Class Minesweepers played an important role for the Navy during the war effort in the Pacific Theater. According to Cormier, U.S. minesweepers disabled or destroyed 1,300 enemy mines in the Pacific Ocean.

Of that amount, 25 were blown up by the YMS 403, on which Cormier served as Quartermaster First Class from its launch in May 1943 until it was decommissioned in February 1946. He wrote about his experiences in an article published in the Navy magazine "The Silent Defenders" a few years ago.

A video producer for a community television station in Methuen, Massachusetts -- Cormier's hometown -- saw the article and asked for permission to record Cormier's story for broadcast. The 28-minute video is stored in the TV station's archives and can be viewed at the link below.

The first mission for YMS 403 was to sweep for mines in New York Harbor and nearby areas of the east coast. Cormier pointed out that the U.S. defensive effort was not fought only in the Pacific Theater.

"Germans were coming in with subs," Cormier said. "They would drop mines and get out of there. We had to be prepared for that."

YMS 403 found no mines in that area, but was later ordered to join the Pacific Fleet. Traveling down the east coast, the ship went through the Panama Canal, sailed up the west coast to San Diego, then headed across the Pacific to Hawaii, the Marshall Islands, Guam and Okinawa. Once the crew detected a submerged enemy mine, their mission was to cut the tether, bringing it to the surface, then destroy it with machine guns, 3-inch, 50-caliber guns and other weapons.

Cormier's ship didn't have much success in its first couple tries, he recalls.

"We fired our weapons at a mine without success," he said. "A more experienced gun boat came up and moved between us and the mine. It fired two or three shots and destroyed it. We were impressed.

"The second time, we were not only impressed, but embarrassed. The same thing happened. The third time, our skipper ordered the other ship to stand off. 'This is gonna be our show,' he said. I gave the negative signal to the other ship, to get the hell out. We were all issued guns and shot that mine so much, it was saturated with holes. But it sank without exploding."

From that point on, however, YMS 403 was spot on with its destruction of 25 mines. And in 1945, the ship was the only one of five YMS vessels that survived a series of typhoons off the coast of Japan.

Cormier left the military in 1946 and went to work for McDonnell Douglas on the west coast. A high school dropout, he was hired based on his military experience and knowledge from sonar school. He eventually worked as a rocket scientist, developing rockets for the Air Force to use in protecting the U.S. from incoming missiles.

The video that is found in the archives of the Methuen community television station was produced by Thom Gradzewicz. He has given us permission to post the following link to the video, where you can hear Cormier's first-hand account and see WWII still photos and footage:

Chronicles of YMS