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