Finding The Families WWII Hero (A Genealogy Quest)

[Puyallup Lee]

I have been involved in genealogy and researching my family for the past 50 years. I started when I was 16 years old.

A lot of people do their genealogy. They try to see how many names, dates, locations for their ancestors they can put on their pedigree chart. Of course I have pedigree charts, charting my lines back. You can spend thousands of dollars doing research and buying books. What you end up with is a lot of bones. I consider the names, dates, places of events the bones of my ancestors.

For myself, I like to pick out one ancestor and get to know them. I spend my time researching them.

Here is an example: When I got married to my lovely wife, there was a tradition in her family that her cousin, Herbert Murdaugh was killed at Pearl Harbor. We accepted the fact, so on the family group sheet we put that he was killed at Pearl Harbor. We didn't have a death date but we knew where he was killed. We also knew he was in the Navy.

Madeline, my wife, remembers seeing a letter Herbie, that is what the family called him, had written stating he wanted to see his new niece, Madeline when he got home. Madeline was born in March 1944. Herbie couldn't have been killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor, but he could of still been killed during the War at Pearl Harbor.

We couldn't find anything on Herbie, until a few years ago when Madeline's mother passed away. As the family was going through her things, we found a newspaper clipping, with no date stating that the USS Longshaw had been sunk off Okinawa. In the margin was written in ink "herbie".

Now we needed to check to see what we could find out about the USS Longshaw. The USS Longshaw (DD-559) was a destroyer.

I then went to the Destroyersonline webpage and sure enough they had a page for the USS Longshaw. There was just the basic information about the ship. Nothing about who served aboard the ship or anything like that.

I sent an email to the webmaster and asked that if anyone, that served on the USS Longshaw, contacted him to please let me know. I said that I thought my wife's cousin served on the ship. What does the webmaster do? He takes my email and posts it on the web page.

About a year and a half later, I receive an email form a Mr. Eaton in California. He stated that he was on the USS Longshaw from the time it was Christened until it sunk. He wanted to know what my wife's cousins name was. I immediately sent an email back informing him it was Herbert Murdaugh.

He said he remembered Herbert very well. Herbert was assigned to the forward torpedo tubes and Mr. Eaton was assigned to the aft torpedo tubes. He had spent many an hour playing cards with Herbert.

This was good stuff! We now know that Herbie was on the USS Longshaw and what his duty station was.

Now to find out when he died. I asked Mr. Eaton when was Herbie killed.

The email I received explained what happened. The ship had been shelling Okinawa during the night and during the day they were standing battle stations. Everyone was dead tired. It was early morning 18 May 1945, and the ship was going around the island, when it ran aground on a reef, this was about 6 am.

At about 11 am the Japanese shore battery opened up and the ship took several direct hits. At the time the first shell landed in the water an attempt was being made to tow the ship off the reef by a fleet tug. All hands not on watch or considered necessary for the operation of the ship had been ordered to the fantail to lighten the ship forward as much as possible. The ship was going to General Quarters when the first shell hit. Thus many people were killed or wounded. going to their stations.

Herbie was on the fantail throwing ammunition over the side when the explosions occurred and he was never found.

This next picture is very hard to look at. It was taken just minutes after the fire was put out. WAR IS HELL!!!

Now we know when and how Herbie, died.

I then asked Mr. Eaton what life was like on the USS LONGSHAW. He sent me a manuscript that he had written on his memories of the Longshaw. This described everything from when the ship was commissioned until it was sunk. He said Herbie also was on the ship from the beginning until he died. Therefore what Mr. Eaton remembers that happened on board ship Herbie also experienced.

I then took the accounts in Mr. Eatons manuscript and the Official Navy History of the USS Longshaw and combined them. I now had a document that gave as accurate as possible a daily history of the experiences the men on board the USS LONGSHAW experienced.

If you want to read Mr. Eaton's account go to USS LONGSHAW and at the bottom of the page is "A Sailor Look"

Herbie's sister was still living and I wanted to give her something to read about what Herbie experienced. I did this in the form of a diary, "Herbie's Diary". It was a fictional document because I never had his diary, and I noted that in the front, but the actual dates and events were factual. I added a few pictures of the USS Longshaw that I got from Mr. Eaton and off the internet.

Now Herbert Murdaugh is more than a few dates and places. By reading the experiences he had on board the USS Longshaw, I feel like I know him a little better. I would love to talk with him about some of the things he experienced. He now has meat on those bones of genealogy, this is true Family History.

Why did the family think Herbie was killed at Pearl Harbor? To be honest, I don't know. Maybe it sounded good because he was in the Navy. Maybe there is a plack somewhere that has the USS Longshaw and her crew that died. I really don't know.

I hope this will inspire others to do their FAMILY HISTORY not just do their GENEALOGY.

Lee

 

[Story]

Thanks for recounting Herbie's tale. I had a motorized model of that Fletcher class as a kid, which sparked alot of tales from the veterans when I took it to the pond.

Interesting damage photograph, as most of those were censored (particularly if they showed bodies/body parts).

 

[June]

Lee, thank you for posting. I agree that family history is so much more than names and dates. And what a great adventure to be able to recount someone's experiences the way you have Herbie's. When my mother died in 1996, I found her 1944 diary (she was 14 that year). An entry in August mentioned her sadness regarding a young man from her small community in VA who had been Killed in Action. Because his death obviously had such an impact on my mother, I wanted to find out more about him, even though I had nothing but his name. After a lot of searching, I was able to find (among other things) that he served with the second battalion of the 116th Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division. He survived the D-Day landings but was killed on 17 June 1944. He was 24 at the time. I emailed the museum in his hometown hoping for additional information, and was told by the kind woman there that she had forwarded my email to his sister-in-law. Approximately one month later I met his sister-in-law. She took me to see his grave and actually gave me a copy of his military portrait, which now hangs in my living room. That experience is what sparked my interest in WWII and what ultimately led me to the Lounge. It was very rewarding.

 

[Vintage Betty]

May all veterans be remembered thus.

Thank you for sharing, especially in time for the American Holiday Memorial Day.

Vintage Betty