Born: 1921
Died: July 8, 1944
Campaigns Served: Namur, Saipan (killed)
Highest Rank Attained: Sergeant
Decorations: Purple Heart
With Dog Company:
William Buller was one of the original members of Dog Company. He was a squad leader with the Third Machine Gun Platoon. Buller was a popular leader; he earned a promotion to sergeant on January 11, 1944, and gunner Glenn Buzzard referred to Buller as his "big brother":
...not a whole lot older, but then everyone was older than me. I would say he was 24 years old at the time, and I was 17. I met him just out of boot camp. He'd sort of look after me, I'd say. I know I put on some pictures, "This is my brother while I was in the Marine Corps," but that is how I felt about him.
- Corporal Glenn Buzzard, quoted in Gail Chatfield's "By Dammit, We're Marines!"
Sergeant Buller led his squad through the battle of Namur, and was transferred to Charlie Company in March, 1944.
With Charlie Company:
Sergeant Buller became a squad leader with Charlie Company's machine gun platoon. He made the landing on Saipan, and fought through the first tough weeks of the campaign.
Buller was equally as popular with officers as he was with other enlisted men; he was particular friends with his platoon leader, First Lieutenant Alex Santilli. On July 8, as First Battalion prepared to advance on Marpi Point, Lieutenant Santilli was distracted by a disturbance in front of his platoon. A number of civilians - women, children, and men holding babies - emerged from a treeline, calling to the Marines. The platoon was in a partially harvested cane field, and as Santilli and Buller went to investigate the civilians, shots rang out from beneath one of the piles of sugar cane. Both Santilli and Buller were killed; Buzzard saw them go down "within seconds of each other."
William Buller was buried in Row 9, Grave 16 of the Second Marine Division Cemetery. After the war, he was reinterred in a private cemetery in New Jersey.