Project USS Strong DD467 started in 1966 when I was 8 years old. However, it wasn’t until 26 years ago with becoming familiar with the internet and the new then Google browser that the doors flew wide open. A search on “USS Strong DD467” provided me with the names and contact information for survivors of a shipwreck that went down in July of 1943, its demise the fault of a Japanese type-93 or “long lance” torpedo. Our family lost my great uncle, William C. Hedrick, Jr., or Billy to them. He was an Ensign in communications on the ship. Up until 1998 I thought everyone on board had died – not so it seems. Years of research, contacts with these men and their families, attending reunions, phone calls, emails and letters, then hooking up with some supremely skilled shipwreck hunters (David Mearns and Paul Mayer) resulted in the DD-467 being located in the Kula Gulf of the central Solomon Islands on February 6th, 2019. She was found by the RV Petrel owned at the time by the late Paul G. Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, and her very able crew led by Robert Kraft and his chief researcher and so much more, our friend Paul Mayer. In 2020 they were to again be in the South Pacific and I was to be flown over and a memorial plaque I had made (paid for by the wonderful families of the Strong men) was to be lowered to the site of the shipwreck while being filmed for possible use in a documentary. We all know what happened in 2020. The crew was disbanded, the ship sold and that option was lost to me. So, this beautiful plaque that was made has been sitting in my home office for over 5 years. This year I decided something had to be done. After researching options and consulting with the families we decided that the plaque is to go to the last place the ship had context – the island of Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu.
During WW2, the largest allied military base in the South Pacific was based at Luganville on Espiritu Santo. There, they rested between missions, resupplied ships, picked up new recruits, played baseball, volleyball and swam in the ocean while sunning on the beaches. Some of the young officers even got to date the nurses at the hospital unit. This was where they lived and the last place 46 men who perished on the ship took their last breaths on land. After working with the people at the new and improved South Pacific WW2 Museum that is now on what was base property, I feel very comfortable with allowing them to house this memorial plaque. I’ve lost the chance to put it at the wreck site, but here people from around the world will be able to see it, learn about Strong and all the ships that were lost in the South Pacific during this war. Strong will be the ambassador ship of sorts. Films shot using the ROV (remotely operated vehicle) during the search for the ship will be on display on a screen with the plaque display. Others will learn of the work done to keep the memories of these ships, their men and their sacrifices alive.
This has been such a part of my life for decades now. I’ve met the most incredible people – historians, researchers, shipwreck hunters, authors, and the best and most sharing family members I could hope for. So at the end of June this year I am off to the island country of Vanuatu in the New Hebrides, South Pacific and personally taking the plaque with me. There are lots of details to work out, but my flights are set. Thank you Sharon Betts with Avant Travel in Lexington, Kentucky for your help, and I’m not done with you yet!
-Tammi
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