We have visited this KIA friendly fire grave several times, today we learned what he looked like
We were asked for permission to use our photo of Vernon's Memorial on the Eternal Patrol website for lost submariners. As you can see, Marta jumped at the chance to honor Vernon after visiting him on so many Memorial Days.
The Wall family cemetery: http://www.steveandmarta.com/graveyards/submarine/submarinel_main.html
Click here (http://www.oneternalpatrol.com/wall-v-p.htm) to see a photo of Vernon Palmer Wall, and read a bit about his service record, at the On Eternal Patrol website for lost submariners. My thanks to Charles Hinman for this link.
"In memory of MM1C Vernon Palmer Wall.
Son of Henry O. – Edna N. Wall.
September 11, 1922 – October 7, 1944.
Lost at sea in the Pacific with submarine Seawolf."
Until September of 1979, the cemetery itself had been forgotten and neglected. None of the family lived in the Midwest anymore and as is happening everywhere, acreages around the plot were being sold to people who built houses on them. Roy Gaddis, a former electrician's mate on a submarine who is a retired electrician and lives in Bellevue, Nebraska, found the cemetery and alerted the Wahoo, Nebraska Chapter of Submarine Veterans of WWII (click the link to visit the main website for this group, and it's best viewed in Internet Explorer). The historian for the group, Clint Orr, did some investigating and found the information on Vernon Wall. He and Ray Cavanaugh began cleaning up and mowing the small plot that year. After some of the Wall family members learned of the plot's existence, they donated funds to put up a strong chain link fence to replace the hog wire that had ineffectively enclosed the cemetery, and money for shrubs and plants. The Submarine Vets keep a US flag flying over the land to honor Wall and all Submariners who lost their lives in the war. It is a small but impressive cemetery.
Visit the page for Seawolf Park in Galveston, Texas.
Visit the page put together by the men who dedicated the Seawolf memorial park in Texas. Vernon Palmer Wall's name is on the Seawolf roster on a plaque, in the park. My thanks to Art Randall for sending me the information on the National Submarine Memorial pages.
http://www.oneternalpatrol.com/wall-v-p.htm
Meet Vernon:
Loss of the Seawolf (A Tragedy of Errors): http://www.steveandmarta.com/graveyards/submarine/submarinel_seawolf.html
http://www.steveandmarta.com/graveyards/submarine/submarinel_pampanito.html
Our related trip to the USS Pampanito:
To anyone in Western IA or Eastern NE, the cemetery needs a volunteer to mow it on a regular routine.
OS & Marta
= new reply since forum marked as read
Yes, it's a small world.
I once came upon a woman at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial who had collapsed before a panel, so I stopped to see if she was okay.
It was her brother's panel, she told me. We talked for a long time, and then she told me she couldn't understand how her brother had turned into a crazed killer. When I asked what she meant, she said the military papers said he went berserk in attacking enemy positions, and she pulled out the paperwork she had with her--including her brother's Silver Star citation.
After reading the citation, I had to explain to her how her brother, with his comrades down and wounded and still under fire, had acted to try to save their lives. It was only then that she finally got it.
And it turned out that she, her brother, and I had grown up a few miles away from each other in L.A.'s San Fernando Valley. She still lived there, and when I returned to California she was the first person I called.
R.I.P. Doug Bastyr. 