The Sentinel, The Great Man I Never Got To Know Part 2

       The picture below was the USS Brownson DD518, Larry's ship.

      Larry’s situation was bad when the ship was sinking. Worse yet he was still in the diesel steering compartment and the hatch was locked above him. A shipmate departing the sinking ship stopped and unlocked the hatch and reached down with his hand to help Larry exit the compartment. Larry never knew who the sailor was and he always wanted to thank him but never had the chance to do so. The ship went down at 2 pm on the 26th of December (December 25th Christmas Day in the USA).

Had it not been for Captain Parkinson of the USS Daly and Captain Hanlon of the USS Lamson both of which broke naval protocol by stopping in a battle area to pick up survivors from the USS Brownson Larry would have never survived, nor would the other 107 survivors of the Brownson's 300 plus crewmembers. No Larry, no Joyce, no life that I have had with her and for me.

      I never knew any of this until after he passed away. I would have loved to hear the story in his own words. Part of the story was told by Joyce’s mother, the details came from a book written by the ship’s other survivors using official navy records.

      Larry was sent back to the USA on survivor's leave. He was then transferred to a naval facility in Ohio where LST ships were being built. Larry’s job was on a crew that boarded the LSTs in Ohio and sailed them down the Ohio river to the Mississippi and on down to New Orleans, using the time aboard the LSTs to check out the boats for seaworthiness. The LSTs stopped in Saint Louis and spent the day there on liberty before leaving the next morning. That is where he met Joyce’s mother. Larry’s ship was sunk on Christmas of 1943 and on his liberty he met Joyce's mother and then married her later on Christmas of 1944.

      Larry used the G.I. bill to study aircraft design and building. After taking his training in aircraft manufacturing, he went to work in a metal manufacturing shop. He never worked on an airplane unless you would qualify working on the space capsules for the Apollo space program which he did.

      Larry passed away in November of 1967. He was in his last days when he got to hold his first grandchild, Joyce’s and my daughter Annie when she was 5 months old.