Looking Back: Remembering World War II

Memorial monument in Edmonds
Memorial monument in Edmonds

With the approach of another Memorial Day, it seems a good time to honor some of the young men who attended school in Edmonds School District 15. Those named below are among the many whose lives were lost on foreign soil or sea while serving their country during World War II. Some were returned to be buried near their homes, some are at rest in other locations in the United States, others sleep in foreign lands, and others are still missing—perhaps forever. Their names are engraved on the 7-foot tall memorial monument located in downtown Edmonds in front of the Edmonds Museum on Fifth Avenue.

If you are an elder and a long-time resident of South Snohomish County, some of these names may bring back memories: Ernest Grant Bjorg, Carl C. Burch, Harold R. Clark, Robert LeRoy Cosman, Robert Archie Duncan, William Hawley Eldridge, William S. Iaeger, Laddie J. Janacek, William Evans Kane, James Howard Kerr, Dan McDonald Leonard, Charles Robert Lutton, Jr., Ralph J. Merrill, Jr., Herbert Arney Meyring, William M. Middleton, Kearney Elbert Miller, Leonard F. Olson, Richard A. Solver, Arthur S. Toothman, Carl Bernard Trager, and Melvin Samuel Yost. Following are the special stories of three of these young men.

JAMES HOWARD KERR

Of those named above, the first casualty of World War II was James Kerr. His parents were Howard and Clara Kerr of Edmonds. Born in 1916, he was the namesake of his paternal grandfather. James was the grandson of Alice U. Kerr, a former mayor of Edmonds. In fact James’ grandmother was the first woman elected to hold that office. James lost his life on December 10, 1941, three days after the Pearl Harbor attack and our country’s formal entry into WWII. Long stationed in the Philippines, James was serving as a Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy with the rank of Quartermaster First Class, when he was killed during the surprise invasion by Japan—his body was never recovered.  James Kerr is one of our country’s long-time MIAs. He is remembered on the Tablets of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial in Hawaii, as well as locally on the Edmonds Memorial Monument.

DAN McDONALD LEONARD

In writing the book about the young men of our area who were lost in war, I called it Etched in Stone. Sitting in front of my computer and working on the research, I shed a lot of tears—since I knew some of these young men, it became very personal. Much of those shed tears came for one special young man—Dan Leonard. Danny was orphaned at a very young age. When he was eight years old, his maternal grandparents Oscar and Odessa Patterson discovered that their grandson was a ward of the Washington Children’s Home in Seattle. Danny then went to live with his grandparents at their farm in Alderwood Manor (Lynnwood). He began his schooling and graduated from the 8th grade at the old Alderwood Manor Grade School. Following that Danny attended Edmonds High School for two years.

The United States still hadn’t recovered from the Great Depression, and finances were tight in Danny’s grandparents’ large household. Then his grandfather died. To help with the family’s finances, Danny joined the Washington State National Guard. Very soon he was called up for active duty in the Signal Corps, U.S. Army. After a short period of training, Danny was sent to the Philippine Islands. Already stationed at Bataan before the beginning of the war, Danny was captured when Japan invaded the Philippines.   He became a participant in the infamous 63-mile Bataan Death March in April of 1942. Danny survived the march only to die on May 9, 1942 from maltreatment at POW Camp O’Donnell in Tarlac, Luzon in the Philippines. O’Donnell became known as an extermination camp—while it was in use as a POW camp, 20,000 Filipino soldiers and 1500 Americans died there.

In 1948, after the Quartermaster Corps began its identification process for the return of the remains of our servicemen, Danny was sent home to his grandmother. He rests in his grave at Edmonds Memorial Cemetery. Also, in 1948, Danny’s grandmother was one of the first to find a few dollars in her pocket to help fund the historic memorial monument which at the present time is located in front of the Edmonds Museum. Danny’s name is one of those etched into the stone.

WILLIAM HAWLEY ELDRIDGE

Another poignant story is that of William Eldridge. Bill attended Edmonds Grade School and graduated from Edmonds High School in 1941. He was not only popular with his classmates; he also excelled in his studies. He was president of his class during his senior year and salutatorian at graduation. Bill was the only child of Mr. and Mrs. William Higgins Eldridge of Edmonds.

Following graduation, Bill joined the U.S. Navy in July of 1941. He was assigned to duty at the Naval Air Station in Seattle to study as an aviation machinist. With the advent of the war, Bill was assigned to duty in the South Pacific with the Seventh Fleet. Bill attained the rank of Aviation Chief Machinist Mate.

On July 23, 1944, Bill, along with the pilot and 15 other flight crew members, was aboard a U.S. Navy R4d Skytrain (C-47) which was assigned to the Aircraft Commander of the Seventh Fleet—the plane making its maiden flight. While on this flight, the plane disappeared between Cairns in North Queensland, Australia and Port Moresby, Papua, New Guinea. After a five-day search and with no finding, all 17 men aboard the plane were presumed dead. A board of inquiry was convened, and finally on February 6, 1946, the 1944 missing-in-action classification for the 17 men was altered to reflect killed-in-action.

Twenty-six years later, in 1970, the remains of the C-47 and the bodies of the 17 men were discovered. The wreckage was found 18.8 miles west of Kokoda, Papua, New Guinea. The plane had been so heavily damaged it had been beyond repair and all the naval personnel were presumed to have died on impact. It was determined that the plane struck high ground in Australia’s Owen Stanley Mountain Range. Bill’s body along with the others was returned to the United States. By that time, Bill’s parents were both deceased—his mother in 1968 and his father in 1969.

When no family member was found to accept his remains, Bill was buried far from his boyhood home. He is interred at one of our oldest national cemeteries—Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, Missouri. Burial took place on May 19, 1972. Bill sleeps in a mass grave with four other members of the ill-fated plane’s personnel. Bill Eldridge’s name is another etched into the stone face of the memorial monument located in Edmonds.

Perhaps on this Memorial Day, you will stop for a minute and remember James, Danny and Bill—and all the others who have given their lives during the all-too-many years of war.

— By Betty Lou Gaeng

 

 

  1. Betty Lou, You have written a wonderful tribute to these men. Although they are only a few of many, it reminds us what Memorial Day should mean to us. That through the decades of war and conflicts, there are our local men and women and that of the thousands of others across the country and the world who have dedicated their lives and too many who have given their lives to help make our country free. Each and every day, we owe them our lives in that we have the freedom to live in peace. God bless America, and God bless our military, living and dead!

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