Virginia family learns truth about relative who died in WWII

The date is Dec. 4, 1945, at Pearl Harbor. Four years of war have passed since the infamous attack on this U.S. naval base, and Japan has surrendered. Now, in port, times are now relatively quiet.

A ship steward is drinking with fellow sailors below deck aboard their vessel, a 160-foot landing craft.

The steward steps into the latrine. He encounters a sailor, who’s also been drinking. They exchange words. A fight breaks out.

The scuffle spills from the bathroom into a nearby kitchen where a second sailor joins the fray. Both sailors grab knives.

The melee ends. The steward’s body is covered in lacerations.

Steward’s Mate 1st Class William Arthur Brown, of Goodview, Virginia, dies in the bowels of the docked ship.

His family won’t learn the truth of his death for the next 80 years.

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