Hey all,

We're about to turn the calendar over to another year, and I wanted to reflect a little on the events of the year.

January brought an uptick in the activity on my web site, and contact with Maxine Stancill Edwards, daughter of William James Stancill of Strong. This was the beginning of many new family contacts to add to the list.

In February, I was able to help Captain Wellings' daughter solve a mystery about a mission flag for DESRON 2 that was among her father's things. He ended up going back to the Pacific and served as a destroyer squadron commander for a time. I also added David Hermsen to the list, son of John J. Hermsen, S1c.

March, I found out that Anne, Captain Wellings' daughter was planning on making it to the reunion in Pensacola in September. Such a wonderful surprise!

April brought some very wonderful and surprising news that I just can't share as of yet. Lots of stuff pending and riding on good timing, so let's just say that if this much anticipated news comes to pass, we will have achieved something wonderful. Stay tuned......

In May, I again attended the Memorial Day services at the Veteran's Cemetery here in Lexington and ended up getting interviewed by the local news. Surprisingly, they ended up doing the entire piece on the interview, so it was very humbling. We also have a major Hollywood actor who lives right here in the Bluegrass, Steve Zahn. Zahn brings his children to these ceremonies each year, instilling in them a sense of honor, dignity and pride in country. It's refreshing to see how unaffected he is by his celebrity and just content to be one of the people in the crowd paying homage to our vets.

In June I solved another mystery thanks to obtaining some deck logs for two of the other destroyer escorts with Strong on July 5th. I had two reports of who picked up Captain Wellings, and wanted to solve this for any future research purposes. According to the logs, the Gwin picked up the captain and saw to his injuries. Coincidentally, this find would later lead to an amazing connection!

July brought an amazing number of hits to the web site. In one hour I had 545 hits on one day, and it indicated to me that things may be taking a turn. Little did I know how much of a turn. The month also brought me three new Strong family members – I gained Bill Gustavson, son of Clarence Gustavson, Pam Dunfield and Carol Loggia, neices of Fred Purdy, Captain Wellings' 2nd in command. I figure part of the increase in the site activity was due to these family members sharing the site, and for that I'm very pleased.

Back to things taking a turn in July, this was the first time I had contact with Stephen Harding! And things just keep getting better and better as time goes on. So thank you July for being quite a magical month.

In August, I began planning for the reunion and was asked by Steve to conduct interviews that might be included in the book. We discussed plans for the book he planned, and how he's waiting for approval from the publisher to make the announcement.

September brought the reunion in Pensacola. For the first time ever it was attended by Fitz Miller, son of Hugh Barr Miller, Jr., and by Captain Wellings' daughter Anne. They got to meet Andy Hoder, son of Stanley Hoder of Strong, and the one survivor who keeps coming back every year, James Merriman. Many touching and moving moments were had and wonderful conversation and story sharing ensued. It was amazing, and I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

October brought me two more family members; David Bailey, nephew of Norman Britt Carpenter and Christopher Gates, nephew of Ben Leonard. David shared a taped recording of his uncle Norman's interview from 1982, and gave me a great lead for tracking down some other information.

I also got the okay to reveal that Steve Harding had a contract to write a book in 2014 about Strong and the story of Hugh Barr Miller, Jr. Big news and happy tidings!

The end of October also brought the death of O. Milt Hackett, officer and a gentleman. Smooth sailing forever, Milt.

November came, and in following up on a lead as mentioned above, I located another Strong survivor, Dr. Henry Laughlin. He was the first medical officer on board, and left the ship in May of 1943 before it sunk. Dr. Laughlin had some recollections he shared with Steve Harding about his time on Strong, via his son John. It was said by Norman Carpenter that one of the doctors on board had carried a movie camera around and was constantly shooting, so we were able to rule out Dr. Laughlin. Next, I needed to try and find the second doctor to clear the mystery and see if there could be any film that existed of time on Strong. I had planned to try and track down the second doctor or his family, but strangely they found me first!

December brought me an early Christmas gift, the family of Dr. Albert Horne, second medical officer on Strong. I woke up one morning and there was an email from his son Russell, out of the blue. Russell and I have exchanged emails and it seems that yes, Dr. Horne did shoot film while on the ship. Sadly, none of it made it off the ship and is now part of the wreckage in the Kula Gulf. How amazing that would have been, to have found even a small piece of film. But I did learn that Dr. Horne was one of the last people to see my uncle Billy alive, and that means something.

Lastly in December, another wonderful email. I got a note from a man named Bill Brown who was an 18 year old radioman on Guadalcanal the night Strong went down. He recalls the message coming through, and says that memory still haunts him. I need to talk with this man and ask him a bit more about that night. Just another case of random events that have meaning. I hope to have many more of these messages come through in 2014.

So much more happened, but the highlights were finding more family members, the increased web site activity and the upcoming book. We have so much to look forward to and I can't wait to give you updates all through 2014. Thank you all so much for your continued support, for reading the blog and for all the information you have shared.

Have a wonderful 2014!!!

Tammi

In a recent blog, I mentioned that I’ve had these “I can’t make this stuff up” coincidences.  Shortly after writing that blog, I had another.  These things just render me speechless, and believe me that’s not easy to do.  So here’s the story, and some additional information.

I got an email from a man whose uncle was on Strong.  David Bailey sent me a note about his uncle, Norman Britt Carpenter, who survived the sinking.  Over the years, Uncle Norman told David many stories and David ended up sharing them with me.  One such story was the memory Norman had of one of the ship’s doctors taking home movies on the ship with a 16mm movie camera.  That set me on the path to locate the two doctors who served on Strong, Dr. Henry P. Laughlin (plank owner to May 1943), and Dr. Albert M. Horne (April – sinking in July, 1943).  I was excited about the possibility of there being film taken on board the ship that made it past censors.  It didn’t take long to track down Dr. Laughlin’s family, and it turns out that Dr. Laughlin is still alive, 97 years old and frail but he was willing to answer a couple of questions.  We found out he was not the one who shot film, so that left Dr. Horne.  He was on board the ship for a short time, and the likelihood of any film being sent home prior to the sinking of the ship was miniscule.  It was worth a shot however, to try to locate his family.  I had found and downloaded his obituary as Dr. Horne died in 1997.  The obit listed the names of his children and their cities of residence, so it was some place to start.  I had every intention of finding time soon to begin searching for contact information.  A few days later, I get up and open up my email that’s specifically attached to the contact page on the web site, and out of the blue I get this, from a Russell Horne: 

“I have a photo of my father if you are interested. He was the Medical Office on the Strong. I don't know his exact dates of assignment. Those can probably be obtained somewhere. I am new at this so I am sure I will learn these things as I move forward with this research. He was on the Strong when it sunk in the Kula gulf. Anyway, if you are interested in a pic, please let me know where to email it.

Russell”

 Thus, the speechless part.  Even more interesting, after a couple of email exchanges it seems that Dr. Horne always had a camera in hand taking film of whatever was going on around him.  I found my movie making doctor!  At present, his family is searching through the things he left behind and have not been able to locate any film he may have shot on Strong.  It’s most likely the camera he took with him and any film are indeed at the bottom of the Kula Gulf.  However, there have been other things to learn from this family.  Before I get to that, let me briefly introduce you to Albert Horne.  From his obituary from March of 1997:

“Dr. Albert Merrill Horne, 86, died peacefully at his home, March 22, 1997, after a prolonged illness. Born September 11, 1910 in Salt Lake City, he was the youngest of six children of George Henry Horne and Alice Smith Merrill Horne. He married Laura Callis November 12, 1940 in Salt Lake City. As a teenager, Albert worked summers on the Nevada and Colorado ranches of his brother-in-law and older sister, Leo and Mary Horne Winder. He graduated from East High School where he was in ROTC.After receiving his bachelor's degree from the University of Utah, he attended medical school at the U. of U. for two years. He graduated from George Washington University Medical School after 2 further years of medical study. He did post graduate medical training at Cornell /New York University Medical Center. During World War II he served in the U.S. Navy, attaining the rank of Lieutenant Commander. He was the medical officer aboard the destroyer U.S.S. Strong and was among the survivors when in July 1943, that ship was sunk in a nighttime naval battle near Guadalcanal. Subsequently, he was assigned to the Seabees and was on Okinawa when the war ended. After the war, he completed a residency in Radiology in Dallas, Texas. Following that, he practiced in Lubbock, Texas and then in Midland, Texas until his retirement in 1980. He was a member of the AMA, Texas Medical Association, and the American College of Radiology. He belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, serving faithfully in various positions as stake missionary, branch president and a district high councilor. Albert was a remarkably kind and gentle man who thought of others before himself. He is survived by his wife, Laura; their five children: Merrill (Deborah), Salt Lake City; Steven (Susan), Orem, Utah; Charlotte (David) Williams, Salt Lake City; Russell (Susan), Lubbock, Texas; Daniel (Kristine), Dallas, Texas; nineteen grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Also survived by his sister Zorah Horne Jeppson of Salt Lake City.”

A couple of emails later, Russell had this to tell me:

“As a medical officer, our father had other assignments as there were not always wounded or sick people to care for and sometimes medical officers had nothing to do.  His other assignment was to help the communications officers on board to intercept and to decode enemy communications.  When the Strong was hit, he was below deck, and he and the other communications officers were busy destroying all of their material (which included decoded enemy communications, etc).   As the ship took more enemy fire and began to list, our father was called up on deck to help with the wounded.  Very soon, thereafter was when the Strong was rammed by the Chevalier and our father was able to make it to that ship.  All the communications officers that our father was helping remained below deck and they were killed as they went down with the ship.

Tammi.  I am not sure as to the complete accuracy of this story and my brother, Merrill is the one who was told the story by our mother or our father.  If it is accurate, it is possible that our father was one of the last people to see and/or speak with William Hedrick.”

According to a newspaper interview with Dr. Horne that was published upon his return home, he mentions the lieutenant he was working with in the communications area, and helping to destroy the documents and equipment – that would have been Lt. Benjamin Frazier Jetton, Billy’s superior officer and yes, that meant he was one of the last people to see Billy alive.  This is strangely comforting to know. 

I look forward to learning more from the Horne family, and hold out hope that perhaps there might be a small piece of film from the ship that made it home before the sinking.  Either way, I’m very happy to have another Strong family on board.

  Tammi

 

Back in April of 2011, I became acquainted via emails with author and former writer for the New York Times, John Darnton.  Darnton worked for the Times for over 40 years, following in the footsteps of his father Barney, a journalist for the Times who was killed during WW2 in Papua New Guinea while on assignment.  He has written both fiction and non-fiction books as well as 40 years of magazine articles, the book released in 2011, a memoir titled  'Almost a Family'.  I decided to read this book, hoping to gain some insight on his personal journey, and perhaps pick up on ideas that might help me in pursuit of information on my uncle Billy.  Darnton painfully describes his childhood after the loss of his father.  Sadly, he was only 11 months old when his father went away to cover the war in the Pacific Theater, and never got to see him again.  His mother raised John and his older brother Robert alone and through many difficult times, never remarrying.  Darnton gives the details of his upbringing as he weaves in the story of his father's death by accidental friendly fire.  The story of his life makes for a beautiful memoir as you see how he shaped his life and future after pulling himself up from the trials of his childhood.  The only true similarity I found between us after reading the book, was the desire to know the person we were researching intimately, to understand what really happened to them and how we came to even be on this journey.   And my story is just that, the steps along the path to finding out about my uncle, his life above and beyond what happened to him in the Solomon Islands, and what led me to this point in the first place.  I have no desire to bore readers with the events of my childhood, so there will be no memoir here.  Mr. Darnton and I are of one mind about one very critical thing, however.  In 'Almost a Family', page 31, he says:

“But sometimes I almost wonder, is it even remotely conceivable that perished souls live on in some kind of parallel world and decide from time to time to reach in and tweak our own?” 

He phrases this as a question, but believes in his heart this is what has happened with his father.  Various events led him to pursue information, and over time he received validation after validation that he was on the right track and doing just what was expected of him.  He ultimately ended up in the village where his father died, meeting people who rescued other men from the boat struck mistakenly by an American pilot who had not been advised that American vessels with journalists would be in the area. 

I too, have received help over the years, in the form of amazing coincidences, and  I mean the “I can't make stuff like this up” kind of coincidences.  I need to follow this path to where ever it will lead me.  Of course the ultimate goal is to visit the Kula Gulf, see the Strong via ROV aboard a research vessel and to attempt to meet islanders who still recall the event.  There is the real possibility of meeting elders who recall the rescue of survivors from the sinking of the Strong and I'm counting on the fates to help make this happen. 

To learn more about the book and John's journey to find his father, visit his web site: http://johndarnton.com/

-Tammi

Just to let you know that our author friend Stephen Harding got a nice notice in Publisher's Weekly.  See below for his mention, or go to the link here to read the rest of the listings:   http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/book-deals/article/59939-book-deals-week-of-november-11-2013.html

We've got some great things to look forward to, so keep watching for updates on the project. 
-Tammi

With great sadness, I must report the passing of Milt Hackett, a fellow officer of my Uncle Billy and torpedo officer on the USS Strong DD 467.  Below is the link to his obituary.  Milt has been more than kind and helpful to me over the years, sharing photographs, stories and information.  He was just interviewed a couple of months ago by Steve Harding for the book he plans to write. 

From his daughter Cathy:
It is with great sadness that we are letting you know that Milt Hackett 
passed away peacefully on October 22, 2013 exactly two months to the day
after our mother, Pam, died.  Dad contracted pneumonia and was unable
to overcome it.  His memorial service will be held on November 9, 2013
at 2:30 p.m. at Our Savior Lutheran Church, 825 S. Taylor St. Arlington, VA 
22204.
Both of our parents attended many of the Strong reunions and I know that
Dad was one of few remaining survivors from DD 467.  Dad was interviewed
by Steve Harding the day our mother went into the hospital.  Please pass
this message to him and any others that you think would be interested.

Here is the link for Dad's electronic obituary.

http://memorial.yourtribute.com/Orwoll-Milton-Hackett/

Sincerely,
Cathy Hackett Jelinek and the Hackett family

*Author's note:  Milt's son has provided me with a 6 page PDF document of his father's accounting of the events of the evening of July 5th, 1943.  I cannot load the document on the web site at this time, but will happily email a copy to anyone who would like to read it.  Notify me at [email protected] if you would like a copy. 
His account can also be found on page 146 of the document compiled by Andrew Wilde on the Destroyer History web site.  Click here: http://destroyerhistory.org/assets/pdf/wilde/467strong_wilde.pdf

I have also added JPEGS of the story to the Memories of Strong page.  Click on the link above and scroll to the last 6 pages. 

Just a brief update on the gentleman who will be writing the story of the USS Strong DD 467 and Hugh Barr Miller, Jr. in 2014, and the efforts to get his latest book The Last Battle onto film.  There is a  push  in Germany to have a German national direct the film (yes, there is a screenplay written).  A recent article in a German publications “Die Welt” gives a wonderful review of the book and ponders the question of whether someone like Stephen Spielberg or a native German would do a better job of producing a film based on events that occurred during WW2 in Austria.  The article is in German, but I found that by using Google Translate I could effectively read the contents.  The link for the article is here: http://www.welt.de/geschichte/zweiter-weltkrieg/article117853722/Als-GIs-und-Wehrmacht-gegen-die-SS-kaempften.htm 
 
To “like” the Facebook page for The Last Battle and keep up with the efforts to take the screenplay from paper to film, click here:  https://www.facebook.com/LastBattleinEurope

The success of this book has put Steve in the limelight in another way, as stated on the Facebook page:
“Da Capo Press is very pleased to announce that Stephen Harding's "The Last Battle" has been nominated for the inaugural Guggenheim-Lehrman Prize in Military History.
  The prize is intended to "draw public attention to military history not only as an important staple of education in the areas of international relations, diplomacy, and conflict studies, but also as a subject in which any educated citizen should be interested."

  A shortlist of finalists will be announced in January 2014, and the award will be presented at a February 13 ceremony in New York City.”

I want to congratulate Steve on the success of the book, and am keeping my fingers crossed for his continual success,
especially with the book on Strong.  It appears that 2014 could be a very interesting year and I'm so happy to have all of you along to share the good stuff!

Tammi

The true beginning of this project to highlight the history of the USS Strong DD 467 and the life of my extraordinary great- uncle Billy Hedrick began about 45 years ago, the spark being a bronze plaque on the back of a family headstone. It began in earnest about 15 years ago when I discovered that there were survivors of the sinking, and from that discovery sprang a plethora of questions, and entangled within those questions are hopes and wishes.  I had questions, such as:
 
1.  Are there other people out there who see the loss of the Strong the same way I do?
2.  How many other Strong families are still out there, how many survivors?
3.  What if I could build a web site, who would see it?
4.  Could there be an expedition some day?
5.  Is there a book that covers the history of Strong and her men, and if not then who could write it?
6.  If that book is written, what then?
 
After many years of research a lot of things are finally starting to come together. 
  
1.  I found that there certainly were others who recognized the importance, both personal and historical, of the sinking of Strong. Attending our first reunion of the combined DD467/DD758 in Pigeon Forge in 1999 was truly eye opening.  Meeting three of the survivors, hearing the story of the one who decided to share his experience with me, propelled me
forward toward learning more. Over the years and with the research gathered, I began to see I had something worth pursuing.

2.   Over the past 3 years, I have been so fortunate to locate many of the Strong families and more survivors than I realized were still out there. This list of family members keeps growing, and the majority of these folks have agreed to have their contact emails listed on the Strong Contacts page of the web site. I don't yet know if anyone is using this information to contact other sons and daughters, nieces and nephews and such, but it's there if anyone chooses to use it.
 
3.   The web site has exceeded my expectations many times over. Through the site, families have found me, other researchers have found me and things are just getting more interesting every day. Recent contacts have resulted in an
opportunity that could change everything. I'm still shaking my head at the good fortune of having met a man with the background and experience to make one and perhaps two of these hopes and wishes come true.
 
4.  As time goes by, the possibility of an expedition increases. I can't say more than that, but thanks to the interest of accomplished shipwreck hunter David Mearns, making this a reality is not beyond the pale any longer.  It feels really good to believe this is possible. 
  
5.   There has never been a published book solely about the history of the DD 467.  If you look at the Navy Links and Resources page, you will see some listed that have a portion of the story detailing the event of the sinking
and some details of the ordeal of Hugh Barr Miller, Jr. and his 43 days spent on Arundel Island.  With the exception
of the book about Miller written by his son Landon in 2012, this information is not the focus of any of the books, just one of the stories that make up a number of books about the actions in the south Pacific. But I can announce now, that a book about Strong and only Strong is on the table! The focus will be the ship and the story of Hugh Barr Miller,
Jr.  The men who worked intimately with him on a daily basis will be discussed, as well as the outcome of his survival and what it meant to his family and the history of the events in the South Pacific in general. We have a NY Times bestselling author and  Editor in Chief of Military History magazine to thank for this!
 
Stephen Harding contacted me via the web site a few weeks ago and asked for help with research on an article he was writing.  After completely geeking out and doing a happy dance over the fact that the SENIOR editor of a major military publication contacted me instead of the other way around, I got down to business.  We struck up a friendship and what could be a very enlightening working relationship. Steve just recently signed a two book deal with his publisher Da
Capo Press, the first ever deal such as this for him, even though he's authored 8 books. His latest book released in May of this year is The Last Battle, a story set in the last literal days of the war in Europe.  It takes place in Austria at a castle where some French politicos, or “honor prisoners” as the Nazi's called them, were being held. They were rescued by American troops, and a few German soldiers who never bought into Hitler's vision. The book reads like a Hollywood thriller, and it's no coincidence that Hollywood saw the same potential. The book has been optioned for a major motion picture and the script is currently being passed around and has been in the hands of Tom Hanks and Harvey Weinstein so far!  So with this recent discovery and with the conversations that Steve and I have had, I'm just overwhelmed with what could be. It's a realistic expectation at this point, that if his version of the Hugh Barr Miller, Jr. story reads as well as it was lived, well then – we could be looking at a repeat of his recent success.
 
Prior to the Strong/Hugh Barr Miller, Jr.  book which will begin early in 2014, he will be telling the story of young Anthony Marchione, the last man to die in the Pacific conflict, just after the accords with Japan were signed. 
Japan had surrendered, and the US forces were doing aerial surveys over Japan. Marchione was with the crew
in the air when some die hard Japanese took shots at the plane.  Fatally hit, Anthony bled to death over Japan, the last to die, just after the war was over.  For more information on this upcoming book The Last to Die, check out the story Harding published in 2008:  http://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/The_Last_to_Die.html
 
The book about Strong will be written, this is now a reality. Contracts are signed and Steve is working diligently to
gather more information, even as he writes his current book.  Within the next year to 18 months it will go from research to inception, to the publisher and then the shelf. Miller's story was previously optioned for a movie back in the late 1950's. Robert Stack bought the rights from Miller and intended to produce a film. Unfortunately Stack fell upon financial hard times and had to sell the developmental rights to none other than DesiLu Productions (yes, Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball), where it died on the shelf. We have the opportunity here through Steve Harding to see it come back to life, which leads to wishful thinking and speculation on my part as to who could do the best job in directing and producing such a film. My picks are either Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks or Ron Howard.  All three of them have experience with filming military based stories and with much success.  Any of the three would do it justice. So far wishful thinking has paid off. Putting your wishes out to the universe, laying the groundwork and seeing what develops had worked splendidly. I'm amazed and astounded, and have much work to do helping Steve realize his vision of what this book could be. And I couldn't be happier with it all!
 
Anyone else with information to share such as letters or photographs of your father, grandfather, uncle or whomever was on Strong DD 467, please contact me.  It's not too late to tell your story.

Tammi
 

While I'm waiting to post a blog that I've been planning for weeks now, I have a nice segue for you.  A young man discovered some film shot by his grandfather in Europe during WW2 and decided to make a documentary.  In the process, he located some of the people in the film to show it to them for the first time.  It's about 15 minutes and totally enjoyable. 


http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=ie3SrjLlcUY&sns=em

-Tammi

Our day was spent visiting the USS Alabama, a battleship commissioned on August 16th of 1942.  She's a massive thing, sitting in Mobile Bay in Alabama at a Battleship Memorial Park built for her, a few select historic aircraft from WW2, Korean War, Viet Nam and other times of conflict, and a submarine, the USS Drum.  This is a wonderful facility, and you can learn more by visiting this web site: http://www.ussalabama.com/

Seeing the men of Strong, both the DD 467 and 758 on this ship was seeing back in time.  They moved comfortably about the ship, reminiscing along the way about their time spent on the sea and their own adventures and misadventures.  I even got to shake the hand of a man who survived the Bataan Death March who was selling a book about his ordeal.  We lunched in the Wardroom, and held a memorial service there.  After, a wreath was floated in the bay by the only member of the 467 who is able to make it to the reunions, and the daughter of the captain of the 467, Anne.  I have to say it was emotional seeing them together, for them as well. 

I've posted a couple of photos below for your enjoyment.  Being here takes more out of me than I realized it would.  But I wouldn't miss it for the world!
Tammi