Memorial

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2nd Lt William C. Boom was attending the University of Arizona, where he was a senior student, when he joined the U.S. Army Reserve in Tuscon, Arizona on 23 October 1942. He first trained to become ski trooper at Camp Hale, Colorado, but later was sent to Camp Benning, Georgia, where he was commissioned on 21 November 1944. He went overseas shortly after.

He was leading his men in the attack on Paderborn, Germany, when the battle group was cut off and surrounded by German infantry firing bazookas and rifles. The fire became intense and he climbed to a point of vantage from where he located the enemy group responsible for the mounting casualties in his own unit and with a carbine killed three Germans and caused additional fire to be directed from their position. He relieved the enemy pressure on his platoon but in so doing disclosed himself and was killed. He was awarded the Silver Star Medal posthumously for this action.

William C. Boom is memorialized on a memorial in the center of Prescott, Arizona.