Ships
- USS Trenton (CL-11) Captain from 24 June 1944. The list gives no relief date.
William Bryan Coleman had the light cruiser Trenton (CL-11) from 24 June 1944. NavSource gives no relief date. DANFS and uboat.net both end the command on 20 August 1945, when Captain Joseph T. Talbert took her. An official biographical sketch says he left her in July 1945. Under him she went from the Southeast Pacific patrol to the Aleutians and the Kuril bombardments. He retired a rear admiral. No death date was in the pages fetched.
He was born in Rochelle, Illinois, on 18 December 1897, the son of John and Helen Sullivan Coleman. He was graduated from Rochelle High School and attended the University of Illinois at Champaign for two years.
He entered the Naval Reserve Force as an ensign on 30 April 1918 and transferred to the Navy in that rank on 26 November 1921. The biographical sketch says that after he was called to active duty he spent a year at Great Lakes, the war having ended during that time, then served in the transport Northern Pacific and in the destroyers Badger, Babbitt, and Wood, in the last as gunnery officer, navigator, and executive officer. The page prints the call to duty as "in the May," without a year. From 1926 to 1928 he was at Twelfth Naval District headquarters in San Francisco, then turret and division officer in California. From 1931 to 1934 he was aide to the commandant of the Fifteenth Naval District. The page prints the place as "Baloa, Canal Zone." He then served a year as communication officer and navigator of a cruiser the page first calls Richard and, in the next sentence, Richmond. In 1935 he took command of King, which the page prints as "the USS King of Destroyer, Scouting Force," and kept her until 1937. He was maintenance officer at the Naval Training Station, San Diego, until 1939, then commanding officer of Bushnell. In 1940 he became executive officer of Portland.
He was still executive officer of Portland at the Battle of the Coral Sea on 8 May 1942. The Bronze Star citation, as the sketch quotes it, says that when Lexington was abandoned he directed the taking aboard and care of about 720 of her survivors, many of them picked up in the dark. He was detached late in 1942 and was executive officer and assistant commandant of the Naval Training Center at Sampson, New York, until 1944. Uboat.net dates a temporary captain's rank to 17 June 1942. The sketch says he advanced to captain from that day.
He then took Trenton, which the sketch places with Task Force 92 in the Aleutians, and it says he kept her until July 1945. The Legion of Merit with Combat "V," as quoted there, covers 22 September 1944 to 24 July 1945 and credits him with three antishipping sweeps of the Sea of Okhotsk and five bombardments, in dangerous and incompletely charted waters and without aircraft cover. DANFS dates his assumption of command to 24 June 1944 and the next captain, Joseph T. Talbert, to 20 August 1945. Uboat.net uses those same end points. NavSource starts him on 24 June 1944 and gives no end. DANFS has the ship leave for the Aleutians on 18 July 1944, arrive at Adak on 2 September, and spend the next year on the Kuril raids, reaching San Francisco on 1 August 1945.
The sketch says that after Trenton he was administration officer at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, until he was relieved of active duty pending retirement on 30 June 1949. He was placed on the retired list that day as a rear admiral, advanced on the basis of combat awards. Besides the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star, both with Combat "V," the sketch lists a letter of commendation and the usual campaign medals, including the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with three engagement stars. The sketch, dated from a biography of 1 July 1950, gives no death date. Uboat.net gives the birth date and no death.