Clyde J. Williamson II always revered the memory of his uncle and knew he was a hero.
His namesake was World War II flyer 2nd Lt. Clyde J. Williamson, a Fort Worth native and Paschal High School graduate.
Williamson II never met his uncle. He just knew the memories his family shared with him. The elder Clyde Williamson was declared missing in action following a Berlin bombing raid when the B-17 Flying Fortress he co-piloted was hit and the crew had to bail.
Williamson II had no idea that the uncle he never knew was memorialized on a Wall of the Missing at a U.S. cemetery in the Netherlands. He never knew his uncle received a Purple Heart, one of the nation’s highest military honors. He wasn’t aware Dutch citizens adopted his uncle and visited his memorial each year since the end of the war.
“It’s always been an honor to carry his name,” said Williamson II, a longtime Arlington resident who recently moved to Bryan to be near his son’s family and grandchildren.
And now? “Even more so,” he said.
In a small southeastern corner of the Netherlands, residents of the town of Margraten grateful for the Allied victory in the war and their liberation from the Nazis made a promise: They’d care for the American war dead and missing.
“That’s pretty cool,” Williamson II, the 73-year-old retired construction manager told the Fort Worth Report. “I’ll have to make a trip to the Netherlands. It’s amazing that the Netherlands has put up a memorial. That’s really an honor to Uncle Clyde.”
Since the end of the war in 1945, residents have adopted each grave and memorial in the U.S. government-operated cemetery and visit the dead, bringing flowers and collecting their photos and mementos to thank the fallen for their sacrifice. Some families have performed the duty for three generations.
The annual celebration is held around Memorial Day. This year’s commemoration marked 81 years since the end of World War II. Victory in Europe was May 8, 1945.
The celebration at the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten on Sunday honored the more than 8,000 World War II service members buried and the 1,722 listed on the Wall of the Missing, including Williamson.
U.S. Ambassador Joseph Popolo, a Dallas businessman, spoke at the event that featured music, flowers, Dutch and American flags and a flyover of four Fort Worth-built F-35s by the Royal Netherlands Air Force. Last year, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and the prime minister attended.
The relationship between the people of Margraten and the American war dead is unique. The cemetery is the only one in the 17 countries where the American Battle Monuments Commission operates that has not receded in time.
About 20% of adopters have connected with the descendants of the war dead.
Since last year, author and historian Robert Edsel has pushed to increase those connections. Edsel gained fame for his book, “The Monuments Men,” about President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s effort to assemble arts experts in the military to rescue and protect European arts and culture from the Nazis.
Nine years ago, Edsel said, he came across the cemetery when he looked into the death of one of the Monuments Men adopted by the Dutch.
Edsel said he was overwhelmed by the stories he heard. He was particularly moved by Emilie Michiels van Kessenich, the wife of the mayor of nearby town Maastricht who even flew to the U.S. in 1946 to track down the servicemen’s family members.
She traveled to Fort Worth and other Texas cities, promising to take care of the war dead as a forever promise if the families did not repatriate them, Edsel said.
“You have a shining example of transcendence, remembrance and grace,” he said of the Dutch adoption program, which has a waiting list.
Last year Edsel published “Remember Us: American Sacrifice, Dutch Freedom, and A Forever Promise Forged in World War II,” and created an organization to help connect the adopters and the war dead’s descendants.
Williamson is now in the process of connecting with his uncle’s adopter.
Fort Worthian Wesley Johnson, 77, made the connection to his uncle’s adopters several years ago. Johnson’s uncle, Pvt. Thurman Johnson, was killed in October 1944 in Germany and the man he never knew has been honored by the same Dutch family ever since.
In 2023, Johnson visited Margraten and met the three generations who had kept the memory of his uncle alive.
“My reaction was complete gratitude for someone taking care of my uncle,” said Johnson, a retired automotive equipment manager who now lives in Ohio. “They’re very appreciative of Americans. One of the younger persons said, ‘Because of Americans we can say whatever stupid thing we want,’ meaning they had freedom of speech with liberation.”
Tarrant County servicemen interred or memorialized at Margraten
After World War II, the U.S. Army did not release next-of-kin information about the dead servicemen, so anyone interested in locating the descendants to let them know about the cemetery and the adoption program has to do some genealogical research.
The Fort Worth Report tracked down Clyde Williamson II through news stories and obituaries of 2nd Lt. Clyde Williamson and his parents. Using public databases, we matched the names of Williamson II, the nephew and his son, the great nephew within the family tree.
Here are Tarrant County servicemen interred or memorialized at Margraten whose descendants have not connected with the adopters:
Theodore Jones
Service Number: 39619063
Age: 21
Born: March 4, 1924, in Fort Worth
Raised in Yellowstone County, Montana
Find a Grave
John Willis Jr. “Jack” Hoskins
Service Number: 18126548
Age: 21
Born: Jan. 29, 1923, in Dallas
Raised in Fort Worth
Find a Grave
Larkin McKinley Callaway
Service Number: Z-556668
Age: 27
Born: Sept. 20, 1901, in Athens, Texas
Raised in Fort Worth
Find a Grave
James Robert Becker
Service Number: 18127240
Age 20
Born: May 30, 1923, in Fort Worth
Raised in Tarrant County
Find a Grave
Harry Granby Brickhouse Jr.
Service Number: O-26778
Age: 25
Born: Oct. 21, 1919, in Fort Worth
Raised in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina
Find a Grave
Maria Recio is a freelance reporter based in Washington, D.C.
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