William N. Davis
Private First Class, United States Army
October 19, 1980 – March 17, 2007
Age – 26
Grand Rapids, MI
Operation Iraqi Freedom
2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Bliss, TX
Killed when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle during combat operations. Also killed were Army Sgt. John E. Allen, Army Sgt. Ed Santini and Army Pfc. John F. Landry Jr. in Baghad, Iraq.
PFC Davis was a 1999 high school graduate and was assigned to Fort Bliss. As he was growing up, Davis spent a lot of time on Fox Lake driving his bass boat while he and his father fished. He was always trying to compete with his mother as they would race each other up and down the shores of Lake Michigan.
The Union High School graduate was employed by retailer Meijer Inc. and worked in landscaping jobs for a few years before deciding to join the Army. Davis grew up in a family with military roots, with his father serving in Vietnam and his grandfather in World War II. Billy always wanted to join the Army as part of a long standing family tradition.
He was a video game enthusiast, whose daughter Aeris was named after a character in the video game “Final Fantasy VII.” PFC Davis left for Iraq in November from Fort Bliss, Texas, and was supposed to return to Grand Rapids on April 14 to begin two weeks of leave to witness his son’s birth. He and his wife had decided to name their unborn son Kaden Andrew.