On March 17, 1985, a tragedy struck Naval Station Guantanamo Bay (NSGB) and the family of Radioman (RM) 2nd Class Billy Henry. While attempting to save a fellow Sailor at Hidden Beach, Henry drowned and left behind a family. To commemorate the courageous act, a memorial was put in place near the spot where he died. The family, however, has never been able to visit the memorial due to the heavy restrictions of getting to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the heavier restrictions getting to where the memorial was placed on NSGB.

While dealing with wounds of a departed family member, the family has only had a single black and white photo of the memorial since 1985. On March 1, 2019, things started change.

Lt. William Hookes, a member of Kappa Lambda Chi Military Fraternity Inc., was just promoted on NSGB and decided to post a photo of his promotion on social media while also recognizing the fraternity. The son of RM2 Henry, also named Billy Henry, a Sergeant in the U.S. Army and member of the same fraternity, mentioned the memorial of his dad.

“It all started with a photo I posted of my promotion ceremony,” said Hookes. “Although we’re in the same fraternity, I’d never spoke to him before in my life.”

After Hookes and Henry started talking, Hookes set out on what would be his first act as a newly minted lieutenant: help the family of RM2 Henry.

Hookes had his doubts about being able to find the memorial, or if it would still be there.

“I’d never even heard of Hidden Beach,” said Hookes. “He sent me a picture of what the memorial looked like and I said I can’t make any promises but I’ll do the research and see if we can locate this.”

This set off a series of asking around NSGB to see if anyone knew of the memorial or had seen it.

“I had two PAOs working on it, I had a security officer working on it, I even had foreign nationals that might have had access over there that might have heard about this beach,” said Hookes.

In the end it took several people, military and civilian, officer and enlisted, pulling together until eventually it reached the NSGB public affairs officer, who confirmed the location of Hidden Beach (which had been closed to public use for many years) and found a reference to RM2 Henry’s memorial.

After hearing where Hidden Beach was located, Hookes wasted no time in trying to find the memorial. He soon discovered that getting to the memorial was not going to be an easy task due to the memorial being located in a restricted area and the site not being maintained.

After getting all the permissions he needed, Hookes and four other people were able to reach the memorial to begin clearing the grass and weeds that had grown around it for over 30 years.

“You could tell this place really had been untouched,” said Hookes.

While Henry was not able to physically be there, Hookes was able to video chat with him while they did a ceremony at his father’s memorial.

“You could see a sense of relief and peace in the tone of their messages,” said Hookes, describing the family thanking them on social media later that day.

The widow of RM2 Henry told Hookes that what he did helped provide some closure.

“In a world so full of hate, and confusion and turmoil,” said Hookes, “there are still people out there that actually genuinely care about people.”

While the family of RM2 Henry was not able to physically be at the memorial where their father died, a team of people from the Navy and civilian world were able to come together to help a service member from a different branch receive more closure, something he and the rest of his family had been waiting for over 30 years for.

“I didn’t expect all of that from one picture,” said Hookes of the promotion photo he posted. “I’ll never forget this. Never ever.”

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