Back in May after Greg and I visited with Paul and Rosie Mayer in Chattanooga, I felt the need to get a memorial plaque in the works. Ships located by other researchers in the past eventually had plaques laid at the site to commemorate and memorialize the men who died and those unrecovered who never received a proper burial. I sat down at my computer and looked at a few designs others had used and eventually came up with one that satisfied my need to keep it simple, yet do honor to the men and the ship. A couple of people offered input on additions or subtractions to the design. David Mearns, the shipwreck hunter gave some input on wording for the back side of the plaque and advised about a design element for the edges. Another friend and STRONG family member Andy Hoder helped me see I needed some changes to the dates on the front. I designed the layout and wrote the poem. The next step was to do a paper mock-up of the size and scale needed and take that to the trophy shop. We have a couple in Lexington and I chose one that had been in business for over 40 years, Hallmark Trophies.

After presenting the shop owner Priscilla Marcum with the design and dimensions, I left with her promise to call with a price based on my requirements. She called a few days later with the quote and I asked her to begin work. Just prior to this I made the request to family members for contributions to get the plaque made and the money started coming in. The first down payment on the total was made soon after. Long story short, there are many people to thank for contributing to the completion of the plaque. Contributors were:
Bill Gustavson, David Hermsen, Andy Hoder, Fitz Miller, Pam Dunfield, Alex Bodo, Bob Mullane, Stephen Harding, Mary Steward, Jim Ansley, Lillith Francis, Norine Altman, Thomas Kelly, David DuBard, Kevin Wheeler and James Oberg.

Thank you all for your financial contributions! I hope you are pleased with the results.

This process has been 20 years in the making. From the first efforts to discover what happened with the ship in 1998 up until this year when the prospect of actually locating the ship became so real – well, this was something I had always hoped to do. To complete the mission of finding the ship I had to think about a memorial of some kind. These men who were unrecovered don’t have normal grave stones. Uncle Billy has a brass plaque on the back of the family headstone at Machpelah Cemetery in Mount Sterling, Kentucky and a write up on Find A Grave. Others have something similar, but it’s not the same as having a stone at the site of their true burial. Now we wait and see if we get the opportunity to put this plaque in place. There is no guarantee, as fulfilling this mission is dependent on the goodwill of some very important people. If it is in their power to do so, then you will know about it as soon as I do. I have every faith that we will be able to accomplish this.

An addition to the story…..

When I started the process of the plaque I worked with Mrs. Marcum. She and I went through the design process, changes and edits until everything was right. Toward the end Mr. Marcum was there. Because Priscilla had surgery the day before, he was at the store when I picked up the plaque. As I was making the final payment, he said, “You know Priscilla has always been the one to work with you. This has been a fascinating process. Can you tell me more about it?” So I did. I told him about the ship, about Billy and the other men who were lost, about the efforts to locate the ship so far and that this plaque would be placed when the site was finally located. He walked me out to the car as we talked and placed it in the back of my Escape. Before I left, he told me he was moved by what he learned and asked if he could hug me. I said yes, and when he drew away from me I saw tears in his eyes. Needless to say, I teared up at his reaction. When you start something like this it’s hard to anticipate the impact it will have on other people on the periphery. I see now after all these years and interactions with the friends, families, shipmates, destroyer squadron mates and more that the project I started to honor Billy has become so much more. I am happy and humbled to share every aspect of this with the families and supporters of STRONG and the other ships with her in the Kula Gulf that night.

Tammi