HEROES: As Memorial Day was approaching, Beth Ann Rhoades shared information with us about her father, William Joseph Price.

While he wasn’t killed in action, William was held captive as a prisoner of war for what we imagine was a very long 3 ½ years.

She provided newspaper clippings from his service during World War II, when William served as a torpedoman second class in the U.S. Navy. He was a prisoner of the Japanese government.

“The Bradford man has been in the U.S. Navy for more than five years. He was reported missing by the War Department on May 6, 1942, and is believed to have been taken prisoner by the Japanese then. He was transferred from several prison camps and last March the government informed Mrs. Manry that he was being taken to Camp Osaka in Japan proper.

“With the unconditional surrender of the Japanese now completed, it is expected that Seaman Price will be liberated and sent back to the States and home.”

A later article announcing his return to the United States explained, in wording you’d only see in a newspaper article from the 1940s: “Torpedoman Price was sent to sea shortly after completion of his boot training in 1940. He was a member of a submarine near Pearl Harbor when the Japs attacked as was captured with a number of American service and civilians.”

After his capture, his mother had no word on his well-being until May 6, 1942, when she saw a telegram that indicated he was “Missing in Action.” It would be several months before she would receive a postcard from William letting her know he was being held prisoner.

When William was on his way back home after life as a POW, he sent his mother a telegram that simply read “Hello, Mom, here I come.”

William’s brother, Benjamin, also served in the military.

Chief Petty Officer Benjamin H. Price, chief aviation machinist with the U.S. Navy, was a member of cruiser USS Biloxi.

Quoting from Benjamin’s report, a newspaper clipping talked about the action Benjamin experienced serving overseas. The Biloxi followed Japanese ships “and chased them clear across the Pacific when they elected to take unconditional surrender rather than be wiped off the earth.”

Both Price brothers served for six years.