Keith Leonard Briley is one of eleven United States Navy sailors who disappeared following the sinking of the USS Worden on January 12, 1943.
Background[]
Keith Briley was born to Leonard Briley and Sina Cole Thompson in Vidor, Texas on December 15, 1920. He had one sister and eight step-children from his mother's side. At some point in his life, he enlisted in the United States Navy from Beaumont, Texas and was assigned a Fireman, First Class, at the USS Worden.
Disappearance[]
During the Aleutian Islands Campaign, a strong current swept the destroyer USS Worden onto a pinnacle that tore into a hull beneath the engine room and caused a complete loss of power. The destroyer then broached and began breaking up in the surf that an evacuation was ordered. The crew of the Worden, who were just dispatched from the South Pacific via California, were inexperienced and received little, if any, artic training. Most had stripped to their underwear before diving in the Bering Sea because they mistakenly thought their navy pea coats and pants would cause them to drown. In reality, the sailors in the water drowned or succumbed to hypothermia without shirts and pants.
However, most of the crew of the USS Worden survived and were picked up by the USS Dewey (DD-349) and the USS Arthur Middleton (APA-25). Fourteen of the sailors, including Briley, were killed, but only three were recovered and identified.
Aftermath[]
After his death, Briley was awarded the Purple Heart and memorialized at the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial in Honolulu, Hawaii. Additionally, he has a memorial marker at Williamson Cemetery in Vidor.
Two months after accident, the partial remains of a sailor washed up on Amchitka Island. Although the remains were presumed to be one of the still-missing eleven, the remains were never identified and were subsequently buried in Plot Section K #30 in Sitka National Cemetery in Sitka, Alaska.
Keith Leonard Briley remains among the over 72,000 Americans who remain unaccounted for in World War II. The DPAA has listed his case as being under Active Pursuit.