Williard Cecil Anderson was born on July 26, 1924 in Culberson, North Carolina. He was the son of Alonzo Milton Anderson and Addie Louise Garland Anderson. Willard served in the United States Naval Reserve as a Seaman First Class during World War II. He was aboard the USS LST 531 and was lost during the Exercise Tiger--one of the large-scale rehearsals for the D-Day invasion of Normandy. This took place in April 1944 in Slapton Sands, Devon in the UK. An Allied naval convoy involved in the exercise was attacked by German submarines, and coordination and communication problems resulted in friendly fire deaths. At least 749 American servicemen were killed. Because of the impending invasion of Normandy, the incident was highly classified and the full story did not come out until years later after the war. S1C Anderson was declared Missing in Action on April 29, 1945 and is memorialized at the Tablets of the Missing, Cambridge American Cemetery, Cambridge, United Kingdom. He also has a cenotaph located in Shady Grove Cemetery, Murphy, Cherokee County, North Carolina, USA.