Stanley Wismer, GM 2/c

A native of Perkasie, Pennsylvania, Stanley Wismer entered the Navy directly after graduating from East Greenville High School in 1943.  He took his boot training at Great Lakes Naval Training School, where he graduated with highest honors.  After attending  gunners school in Newport, Rhode Island, he received advanced training at Washington, D.C. before reporting on board the USS Laffey (DD 724) on February, 8, 1944.

He participated in the Invasion of Normandy on D-Day, as well as the invasions of Luzon, Leyte, Mindoro, and Okinawa.  He died of wound received in action aboard the USS Laffey on April 16, 1945 and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Fort Myers, Virginia on April 8, 1949.  He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for his heroic actions on April 16.

For heroic achievement while serving as Petty Officer in charge of two 20-mm guns on board the U.S.S. Laffey, when that vessel was attacked by a strong force of Japanese aircraft while acting as Radar Picket Ship off the northwest coast of Okinawa Jima on April 16, 1945.  Quick to act when the planes flew in over his ship and launched a relentless strike, Wismer promptly trained his guns on the initial attacker and, maintaining an accurate, steady stream of devastating fire against the enemy, blasted him into the sea before he could inflict damage on the Laffey.  Rapidly expending his ammunition as the attacks continued unabated, he rallied emergency ammunition passers and kept the guns supplied and firing until he was fatally struck down by shell fragments when the enemy scored a near miss