I have many goals in the effort to find STRONG. Number one of course is to locate and document the wreck of the ship and leave a plaque to mark the graves of those who can never come home for burial. Another is to get on Arundel (now Kohinngo) Island with archaeological guidance and locate the camp of Lt. Hugh Barr Miller, Jr. Lastly, there were five men who disappeared on Arundel – two who died shortly after arriving and are buried on or near the beach, and three who disappeared to the southeast part of the island and were most likely killed by the Japanese. If there is any way to locate the remains of any of these men, then should we try? If we ever have boots on the ground there it’s worth the effort. It would be easier to accomplish if we could involve the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) out of Honolulu, and steps have been taken to do so.
In New Orleans December of 2017, I met with Toni Kiser, Assistant Director for Collections Management of the National World War II Museum. During our conversation I discussed the desire to try and find the remains of some of the five men: Francis “Frank” Armbruster, Floyd Lawrence, Lt. Albert Oberg, Daniel “Danny” Mullane and Edward “Eddie” Deering. Toni mentioned that there were two staff members at the museum who worked specifically with the DPAA on a regular basis and promised to hook me up with the contact information for Jason Dawsey who was currently on assignment. A step in the right direction!
Once I was home, Toni and I exchanged a couple more emails before I finally contacted Jason. From the very first, our communications were very promising. I explained to Jason about the project and our goals, including the attempt to locate the remains of any of the STRONG men. He was very encouraging and promised to pass the information on to officials at the main branch of the DPAA. And as I said there were at least five men from STRONG that perished on Arundel Island and whose remains should still be there – according to other research I found, this may not be true.
First I prepared a list of men to send to Jason. He suggested I check the DPAA list of the missing in WW2 (http://www.dpaa.mil/Our-Missing/World-War-II/Service-Personnel-Not-Recovered-Following-WWII/), and when I did I noticed a couple of names were not there – Floyd Lawrence and Edward “Eddie” Deering. I already had information on Al Oberg, Danny Mullane and Frank Armbruster, so they were confirmed on the list as “missing”. Floyd was a bit of a mystery, not much showed up for him on Google searches or Find A Grave, so I turned to Ancestry.com and the memorial page for the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC), which lists the names of the missing on a memorial wall at the cemetery in Manila. On the site, Floyd H. Lawrence from Georgia is listed as “Missing in Action”. This was expected. I took the information of where Floyd was from and found that he was from a town near Macon. Contacting the library for Gwinnett County resulted in a piece in a book that was forwarded to me by a very helpful historian at the library. Floyd’s name was submitted for the list of missing men from the state of Georgia. Eddie Deering should be on there for Indiana, however the information I found showed different information that provided the fodder for the mystery.
In his written reports regarding ending up on Arundel Island on the float net with the other five men, Miller very clearly discussed the fate of Eddie and his declining health once they reached the island. After burying Al Oberg on a small spit of land on the eastern coast, the group traveled across Stima Lagoon to the main beach and landed near the remains of a former coconut plantation on the island. They moved further away from the beach and under cover to avoid Japanese patrols. Eddie passed away on July 13th of 1943. The remaining healthy men, Mullane, Armbruster and Lawrence buried him in a shallow grave among the palms. You would think that would be the end of Eddie’s story, but no. I didn’t have any information on Eddie, so I also did an Ancestry.com search on him. What I found blew me away. According to a link to the ABMC’s memorial page, Edward A. Deering who died on July 13th of 1943 in the Solomon Islands is listed as “Buried”. They even listed the grave and burial plot with this information: “Service #2837852, Rank Seaman Second Class, U.S. Navy, Entered Service from Ohio, Date of Death July 13, 1943, Buried Plot J, Row 13 Grave 12, Manila American Cemetery, Taguig City, Philippines”. And yes this is the correct Edward A. Deering. Other information matches Eddie’s, including the name of his mother who is listed in the memorial on-line and his home town. So there had had been a recovery of his remains at some point by the US or Australian teams who swept through the Pacific islands between 1945-1949. But if Eddie was recovered at some time, why not Al or the others? What has happened here?
I began researching the processes of DPAA and the past organizations that operated in the South Pacific after the war based on some information provided to me by Jason Dawsey. I was advised to obtain a form called an IDPF (Individual Deceased Personnel File) from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri, which could give information on this particular burial. This can often take a matter of weeks and there is a fee for the research and materials, but I eventually ordered the profile through an intermediary who sped up the process. I believed getting the IDPF on Eddie’s burial would certainly clear things up. And, after reading the report there were more questions than answers.
First, a little about Edward Arthur Deering. He was born in Lovell, Wyoming on January 7th, 1923 and had a twin brother Edwin Walter. He was a member of the National Guard prior to his service on STRONG, spoke Spanish and was employed as a steel worker in Ohio where he lived with his mother, Lillian Hurlbut of Elyria. Eddie’s IDPF indicated that sometime before 1949 his remains were recovered and buried at Finschaffen military cemetery in South New Guinea. After 1949 he was disinterred and reburied at Manila American Cemetery. Further digging did not produce any information on whether or not the remains of any of the other four men were found. This was disturbing to me and I wondered if a mistake had occurred. After talking further with Jason Dawsey I decided to contact the folks at the American Battle Monuments Commission, as their entity in the 1940s handled the burial arrangements. A couple of calls later I landed on the line with Alec Bennet at the ABMC. According to Bennet when remains were initially recovered it was not unusual for them to be relocated a number of times before ending up in the final resting place based either on the families wishes or the lack of family contact. Eddie’s IDPF indicated that his mother requested his final burial to be at what was then Fort McKinley Cemetery, Manila, Philippines.
I still had no idea of whether the others had been recovered. If recovered, they are either in a mass grave in Manila, in the Punchbowl on Oahu or in boxes at the facility in Honolulu. Alec Bennet recommended getting hold of the Quartermaster General’s records from the National Archives, RB 92 as the location. This is where I stopped for now. I need to reach out to one of the researchers there to help with this as I cannot make it to College Park, Maryland any time soon. I would hope to learn from these records whether or not any other American remains were located and if so, where are they? If there are unidentified remains from Arundel Island, they could possibly be identified. For this to happen any families involved need to submit DNA to aid in identification. For more information about sending a DNA sample to the DPAA click here: http://www.dpaa.mil/Resources/Fact-Sheets/Article-View/Article/590581/armed-forces-medical-examiner-system-dna-identification-laboratory/
Even though I’m fairly sure my uncle Billy went down with the ship, there could be the outside chance his body washed out of the ship and may have been found later. I’m considering submitting DNA in the off chance this could be true. The other option is the men are still on Arundel waiting to be found, or left in peace where they are. This is up to the families to pursue. Contact me if you would like any more information.
Tammi
P.S. Below is a photo of Eddie in uniform. Courtesy of the Deering family.
In New Orleans December of 2017, I met with Toni Kiser, Assistant Director for Collections Management of the National World War II Museum. During our conversation I discussed the desire to try and find the remains of some of the five men: Francis “Frank” Armbruster, Floyd Lawrence, Lt. Albert Oberg, Daniel “Danny” Mullane and Edward “Eddie” Deering. Toni mentioned that there were two staff members at the museum who worked specifically with the DPAA on a regular basis and promised to hook me up with the contact information for Jason Dawsey who was currently on assignment. A step in the right direction!
Once I was home, Toni and I exchanged a couple more emails before I finally contacted Jason. From the very first, our communications were very promising. I explained to Jason about the project and our goals, including the attempt to locate the remains of any of the STRONG men. He was very encouraging and promised to pass the information on to officials at the main branch of the DPAA. And as I said there were at least five men from STRONG that perished on Arundel Island and whose remains should still be there – according to other research I found, this may not be true.
First I prepared a list of men to send to Jason. He suggested I check the DPAA list of the missing in WW2 (http://www.dpaa.mil/Our-Missing/World-War-II/Service-Personnel-Not-Recovered-Following-WWII/), and when I did I noticed a couple of names were not there – Floyd Lawrence and Edward “Eddie” Deering. I already had information on Al Oberg, Danny Mullane and Frank Armbruster, so they were confirmed on the list as “missing”. Floyd was a bit of a mystery, not much showed up for him on Google searches or Find A Grave, so I turned to Ancestry.com and the memorial page for the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC), which lists the names of the missing on a memorial wall at the cemetery in Manila. On the site, Floyd H. Lawrence from Georgia is listed as “Missing in Action”. This was expected. I took the information of where Floyd was from and found that he was from a town near Macon. Contacting the library for Gwinnett County resulted in a piece in a book that was forwarded to me by a very helpful historian at the library. Floyd’s name was submitted for the list of missing men from the state of Georgia. Eddie Deering should be on there for Indiana, however the information I found showed different information that provided the fodder for the mystery.
In his written reports regarding ending up on Arundel Island on the float net with the other five men, Miller very clearly discussed the fate of Eddie and his declining health once they reached the island. After burying Al Oberg on a small spit of land on the eastern coast, the group traveled across Stima Lagoon to the main beach and landed near the remains of a former coconut plantation on the island. They moved further away from the beach and under cover to avoid Japanese patrols. Eddie passed away on July 13th of 1943. The remaining healthy men, Mullane, Armbruster and Lawrence buried him in a shallow grave among the palms. You would think that would be the end of Eddie’s story, but no. I didn’t have any information on Eddie, so I also did an Ancestry.com search on him. What I found blew me away. According to a link to the ABMC’s memorial page, Edward A. Deering who died on July 13th of 1943 in the Solomon Islands is listed as “Buried”. They even listed the grave and burial plot with this information: “Service #2837852, Rank Seaman Second Class, U.S. Navy, Entered Service from Ohio, Date of Death July 13, 1943, Buried Plot J, Row 13 Grave 12, Manila American Cemetery, Taguig City, Philippines”. And yes this is the correct Edward A. Deering. Other information matches Eddie’s, including the name of his mother who is listed in the memorial on-line and his home town. So there had had been a recovery of his remains at some point by the US or Australian teams who swept through the Pacific islands between 1945-1949. But if Eddie was recovered at some time, why not Al or the others? What has happened here?
I began researching the processes of DPAA and the past organizations that operated in the South Pacific after the war based on some information provided to me by Jason Dawsey. I was advised to obtain a form called an IDPF (Individual Deceased Personnel File) from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri, which could give information on this particular burial. This can often take a matter of weeks and there is a fee for the research and materials, but I eventually ordered the profile through an intermediary who sped up the process. I believed getting the IDPF on Eddie’s burial would certainly clear things up. And, after reading the report there were more questions than answers.
First, a little about Edward Arthur Deering. He was born in Lovell, Wyoming on January 7th, 1923 and had a twin brother Edwin Walter. He was a member of the National Guard prior to his service on STRONG, spoke Spanish and was employed as a steel worker in Ohio where he lived with his mother, Lillian Hurlbut of Elyria. Eddie’s IDPF indicated that sometime before 1949 his remains were recovered and buried at Finschaffen military cemetery in South New Guinea. After 1949 he was disinterred and reburied at Manila American Cemetery. Further digging did not produce any information on whether or not the remains of any of the other four men were found. This was disturbing to me and I wondered if a mistake had occurred. After talking further with Jason Dawsey I decided to contact the folks at the American Battle Monuments Commission, as their entity in the 1940s handled the burial arrangements. A couple of calls later I landed on the line with Alec Bennet at the ABMC. According to Bennet when remains were initially recovered it was not unusual for them to be relocated a number of times before ending up in the final resting place based either on the families wishes or the lack of family contact. Eddie’s IDPF indicated that his mother requested his final burial to be at what was then Fort McKinley Cemetery, Manila, Philippines.
I still had no idea of whether the others had been recovered. If recovered, they are either in a mass grave in Manila, in the Punchbowl on Oahu or in boxes at the facility in Honolulu. Alec Bennet recommended getting hold of the Quartermaster General’s records from the National Archives, RB 92 as the location. This is where I stopped for now. I need to reach out to one of the researchers there to help with this as I cannot make it to College Park, Maryland any time soon. I would hope to learn from these records whether or not any other American remains were located and if so, where are they? If there are unidentified remains from Arundel Island, they could possibly be identified. For this to happen any families involved need to submit DNA to aid in identification. For more information about sending a DNA sample to the DPAA click here: http://www.dpaa.mil/Resources/Fact-Sheets/Article-View/Article/590581/armed-forces-medical-examiner-system-dna-identification-laboratory/
Even though I’m fairly sure my uncle Billy went down with the ship, there could be the outside chance his body washed out of the ship and may have been found later. I’m considering submitting DNA in the off chance this could be true. The other option is the men are still on Arundel waiting to be found, or left in peace where they are. This is up to the families to pursue. Contact me if you would like any more information.
Tammi
P.S. Below is a photo of Eddie in uniform. Courtesy of the Deering family.
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