What were their names?

By Jim Terry

Last year October 31st fell on Monday. A neighbor noticed my American flag flying and asked me if Halloween had been declared a national holiday. I know how wacky the politicians in Washington act, but I assured him that as far as I knew, Halloween had not been declared a national holiday. At least, not yet.

My neighbor then asked, "If Halloween is not a holiday, why are you flying your flag today?"

Although I have fond memories of the way we observed Halloween many years ago, I have little interest in memorializing October 31 as a ghost and goblin day.

In my youth most kids made their own costumes. Baggy pants, an oversized shirt stuffed with straw and a painted on silly face turned us into scarecrows. Or, we would put on a black eye patch, wrap a bandana around the head, make a crude sword from a long stick and become a pirate. And a hook fashioned from a clothes hanger replaced the hand lost in a sword fight. We were imaginative and resourceful in those days. We had no Halloween stores with factory manufactured costumes, prosthetics and gadgets. I have found another reason to remember October 31 and fly my flag.

Although the United States remained neutral after war broke out in Europe, this country provided war materials to Great Britain, then under siege from Germany. American warships served as escorts for the hundreds of merchant ships transporting the goods to Great Britain. Those merchant ships were frequently attacked by German U-boats.

On October 31, 1941 the USS Reuben James, an American destroyer built in 1919, was engaged with an eastbound convoy. Somewhere off the coast of Iceland a Wolfpack of German submarines lay in wait. At approximately 5:30 am, German submarine U-552 fired a torpedo which struck the Reuben James. The James broke apart and sank in minutes. The official U.S. Navy account states that 45 of the 160 crew survived. Other accounts, however, cited 44 survivors and 100 lost.

At the time, the sinking of the Reuben James was not big news in this country. Ironically, the Left leaning folk singer and writer, Woody Guthrie, who served in the Merchant Marines and the Army during World War II, wrote lyrics to a song he titled Sinking Of The Reuben James in an attempt to bring the American public's attention to the plight of the James and its crew by asking the question in the chorus:

Tell me, what were their names,
Tell me, what were their names?
Did you have a friend
On the good Reuben James?

While other American warships had been damaged by German torpedoes and many merchant ships sunk, most historians concede the USS Reuben James was the first American warship sunk in those early days of World War II. The names of those brave men were forgotten by our nation long ago. But we can still honor their actions and their loss by proudly flying the flag each October 31. And if a neighbor asks you why you are flying your flag on Halloween, tell him about those brave Americans and ask him, "What were their names?"

© Jim Terry