I'm always on the lookout for stories by kindred spirits - those family members, sons, daughters, nieces, nephews, grandchildren and such who may not have known an uncle, grandfather, father, grandmother, aunt or whatever - those who take up telling their stories due to a sense of honor, love and the challenge of researching someone who served in the various wars. So when I saw this post on Facebook on the site for Kim Lengling and her podcast Let Fear Bounce, I just had to listen to parts 1 and 2 of this interview with Dr. Phil Rosencrantz. Phil is a Professor Emeritus at California Polytechnic in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Department (Howard Walowitz would identify, Sheldon Cooper would scoff). When he learned over his life of his Uncle Dave and began to research his life, reading the multitude of letters he wrote home, it sparked something in him to learn more. In addition, Dave's remains were never located and this caused his grieving grandmother untold pain. He decided that finding his remains was to become a life goal and started on the path to do just that. 

Phil's family lost his uncle David Rosencrantz in WW2. David Rosencrantz was born in Los Angeles, California on October 31, 1915. He joined the Army in WW2 and was part of the 82nd Airborne Division, 504th Parachute Infantry, 3rd Battalion, H Company. He was lost over Holland on September 28th, 1944 and not recovered - until Phil went to work making the necessary connections over the years that changed the story forever. I saw that Phil and I had so many parallels in our journeys in the ways we went about finding information, meeting family members, attending reunions, contacting agencies such as NPRC (National Personnel Records Center) and NARA (National Archives) and more. His story is worth listening to and inspiring, so please follow the links below and have a listen. 

Let Fear Bounce: Phil Rosencrantz Part 1
Let Fear Bounce: Phil Rosencrantz Part 2

​Phil and I have emailed a couple of times and he's a personable and interesting guy. You can find his book on Kindle Unlimited if you have a subscription, or on Amazon.com. I have it downloaded on my Kindle and am in the process of reading through the letters and stories of Uncle Dave and his life in the Army as a paratrooper. Do check out the podcast and enjoy the listen!

Tammi

Phil's Uncle Dave website: Uncle Dave

Over the years I’ve been very fortunate to find a couple of items on ebay directly related to Strong and have bought them. One is a piece of stationary, a “cachet” or envelope given out upon the ship’s commissioning, and an aluminum scarf knot with the DD-467 name and date of commissioning (photos of both are on Memories of Strong page). It’s been extraordinary for me to find these and I am always on the lookout for anything else. This past week I hit the jackpot again.

A few days ago I did a cursory search on ebay as I do from time to time. An item popped up that really got my heart racing, and I bid on it right away. It was a copper mail bag tag from Strong! On the tag it reads: “N.P.D.D.467. U.S.S. STRONG. SHIPMT #2. SLIDE #4213.” My mind began trying to figure out how this could be, how a mail bag tag from Strong ended up here. Sadly the person selling the tag (an Army vet) had no idea where it came from and he’d had it for years. Dead end. To me there was only one version of how this tag survived. It could be wrong, but why else would someone save a tag?

On July 1st, 1943 the Strong did a mail drop to the USS Honolulu. This is on a piece of film taken from the deck of Honolulu and featured on Getty Images. My thought is, this tag was on the last bag of mail that came off the ship. Perhaps after the ship sank a Honolulu sailor or someone else along the route this bag took captured the tag as a souvenir. The numbers on the tag would tell me more if I had access to the administrative records from Honolulu. I checked with Steve Harding and he affirmed for me that every bag would have been recorded, so somewhere this information may exist if it was kept and put in an archive. National Archives (NARA) is still closed to the public. I sent this image and a note to a historian at the Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) for some validation, but have not heard anything back yet. Perhaps some of you may have an idea what these numbers might mean? I’m open to any suggestions on how to further research this tag.

This item is in the mail and on its way home to me. I can’t wait to hold it in my hands and put it with the other artifacts from the ship.

Tammi