Over the past six decades, there have been many misconceptions and fabrications put into circulation about various aspects of Argentia's history. That is especially true of some people relating stories pertaining to the U.S. Navy during the more than half century that the Americans occupied Argentia.

After the USS Truxtun and USS Pollux disaster near St. Lawrence in February 1942, there were 12 bodies picked up at various places in the northern section of Placentia Bay. While the circumstances pertaining to 10 of those bodies were nothing out of the ordinary, the two bodies that were found at Red Island led to different versions of a story that was considered to be “mysterious.”

The following account of the “Red Island mystery” by Tom Rossiter appeared in the March 2, 2006 issue of The Telegram.

The body lay face down in the water near the edge of the net, one arm fully extended, the other caught up in its own clothing, as if reaching inside the pocket of a coat.

Mike Carroll, 37, was fishing alone, hauling herring nets near Jimmy's Cove, a half-mile from the harbour on tiny Red Island in Placentia Bay. It was the spring of 1942 on a particularly calm morning and Carroll was catching herring for bait, a spring ritual everywhere on the island back then.

He saw the body come up and, at first, didn't know what to make of it. After the initial shock passed, he maneuvered the punt along the net, positioning himself almost directly above the corpse. He tried hauling up the net but soon realized it was too heavy, that he wouldn't be able to get it onboard. He cut away the net enough to get the body up to the boat and then tied it to the stem as best he could and headed for Red Island.

Half an hour later, in a scene reminiscent of the old Cuban fisherman, Santiago, in The Old Man and the Sea, Mike Carroll in the Ethel M could be seen entering the harbour with the body of an American sailor tied to his boat making his way to the wharf and home.

Kevin Carroll, then nine years old, was among the watchers on shore that morning and recalls the commotion that quickly overtook the community, “When they found out that Mike Carroll had a body in tow, they all came down to the wharf. The place was full. There was no trouble to get people to take him ashore then.”

They soon transferred the body to the wharf and carried it up the walkway to his father's store and placed it inside. It was obvious to everyone that the body had been in the water for some time and that considerable decomposition had already taken place. There was, therefore, little time for ceremony and plans for burial began right away.

The burial ritual for the young sailor was carried out according to the customs of the time on Red Island - the coffin was built by Tommy Norman and Tom Dunphy, master carpenters, and was funded by the men who had gathered that morning to care for the remains. White linen was gathered for the inside of the coffin and the outside was done with “a grey cotton of some kind.” The only spectators allowed near the store throughout the preparations for burial were the participants themselves - men only – while women and children were kept at a distance, never allowed near the place.

“They did him up, made a cross for him and so on and the next day, after they built the coffin, they had what they used to call a pallbearer – two big sticks about 14 feet long, like a big hand barrow - with cross-sticks here and there,” Kevin Carroll said.

“They put the coffin on top of that and then they put that on their shoulders and carried him to the graveyard, about half a mile away.”

Carroll remembers there was no priest available at the time for any kind of service but the group recited the rosary at graveside, led by Jim McCarthy. And while the incident would stir a kind of fear in many residents for some time after, all felt they had done their best for the young sailor, that the young man had been laid to rest as respectfully as possible. His personal effects, consisting merely of a wallet and a bos'un's whistle, were passed on to the local post mistress, Ann Dunphy, who then notified the authorities at the U.S. Naval Base in Argentia.

A few days later it happened again.

Bridget Mulrooney, an older woman and one of only two family residents living at Wild Cove, a small inlet located about a mile away on the back of the island, discovered the body of a second sailor, that of a black man, washed up on the beach.

The news of the discovery of a second body confounded everyone on Red Island, and though the connection was not immediately made, it soon became clear to a few that these bodies must have made their way from the site of the Pollux and Truxton [sic] disaster near St. Lawrence, more than two months before.

Carroll remembers that it was years later that his father told him the full story of the events unfolding that spring in 1942. However, in the minds of the children of Red Island at the time, he told me, it seemed as if some horrible nightmare had descended upon them and they were very frightened by it all.

The men went to work immediately to recover the remains of the second American sailor. A group of seven or eight set out on the one-mile distance to Wild Cove the same day and, once again, using the familiar pallbearer as they had always done at such times, carried the body back by road to Red Island to initiate the second burial ceremony. The next day the young man was buried alongside his shipmate and his personal effects passed on to the post mistress who would again have to notify the authorities at Argentia.

It was about two weeks later, Carroll said, before anything else happened. “I remember going to school one morning. It was about half-past eight. I looked out the bay and all you could see was water from her - from the crash boat - and she comin' in the bay. She was like the PT 109, water flying everywhere!”

Carroll said the boat docked at Jim McCarthy's wharf and about 50 American sailors hit the island like an invasion force, all dressed in bright yellow vests and jumping to the wharf as if some kind of crisis was happening. They immediately requested someone take them to the local cemetery to retrieve the bodies of their comrades.

“There were no fishermen around that morning. They were all on the fishing grounds. Somebody said - I don't know who it was – ‘there's Mike Carroll's young fella. He'll show you where they are.' So, off I go and I hear the jeers of the Yanks behind me, making fun of the size of me. ‘There's our guide,' they'd laugh. Make no wonder, sure I was only about three-and-a-half foot tall.”

Carroll led them over the half mile route to the cemetery and proceeded to show them the site of the two graves. “I was showing them where they were when Joe Pop shows up. Joe Pop we called him, but Joe Cheeseman was his name. He was a bit of a character. I pointed out, ‘There they are over there.' And Joe Pop says, ‘No, b'y, that's not right, they're over there'.”

Joe Pop, it turned out, was wrong.

A crowd of onlookers, about 20 or so who had followed them, said nothing and, in the confusion of it all, the Americans proceeded to dig at the site of what they believed to be the graves of their comrades, the one pointed out by Joe Pop. Carroll went on to school and a few minutes later the procession left the cemetery with the two caskets and wended its way back to the crash boats. The caskets were placed on board and the Americans were gone.

“Anyway, that was alright,” Carroll continued. “Dad came in from fishing and I told him what went on, and I told him, “B'y, they dug up the wrong fellas.' I said, I told 'em where they were but they wouldn't believe me. And they dug up Dinny and Mary Murphy.”

The Murphys had passed away years before and the Americans didn't notice the ground the Murphys were in wasn't freshly disturbed as was the spot pointed out by Carroll.

A frightened young Carroll went back to the cemetery later that day with his father and pointed out again where the grave site was. “You were right,” his father told him.

A number of people on Red Island were convinced the younger Carroll was the one responsible for the mistake. For days after he was the subject of much fun and ridicule. Whispers of a costly $300 “run across the bay for nothing” could be heard around Red Island for a while.

In the meantime, communication lines to Argentia were opened again with news of what had happened and a few days later, as Carroll describes, “Back they came, water going everywhere again, 50 of them on the wharf again, with the two caskets on board.”

It was Mike Carroll who led them to the cemetery this time, pointing out the proper grave site once and for all, and there the matter ended. Out of respect for the Murphy family, the Americans soon constructed an elaborate metal enclosure around their gravesite, which can still be seen in the little cemetery above the community. Five years later, after the war, Mike Carroll was invited to the U.S. base in Argentia to receive a citation of gratitude from the American government.

Unfortunately, the document has since gone missing, leaving only Kevin Carroll and a few others of that generation of Red Islanders, to remember and pass on this incredible story.

(Footnote: The bodies were indeed those of sailors lost during the Pollux and Truxton [sic] disaster in February that year. The U.S. military had actually hired local fishermen at the time to assist in the search along the shores of Placentia Bay , and a large number of bodies were found in the months following. Years later, Kevin Carroll attempted to get the names of the young men discovered on Red Island but was told by the American military that the records had been lost).

That was a rather “incredible” story, so much so that it left little doubt as to the much misinformation that it contained! It really created more questions than it answered. It is also a prime example of how facts get distorted by someone attempting to recreate a record from the bits and pieces of memories that he perceived as having occurred after the passage of 64 years.

Firstly, the chronological unfolding of events makes no sense; it is not even logical by any stretch of the imagination! When Tom Rossiter credited Kevin Carroll with making the statement, “The Murphys had passed away years before and the Americans didn't notice the ground the Murphys were in wasn't freshly disturbed as was the spot pointed out by Carroll,” one question jumps to the forefront. Since “the Murphys had passed away years before,” why blame the Americans when Joe Cheeseman was the one who pointed out the graves? Surely, he should have known better! Nevertheless, there were two major details that Carroll failed to mention in his story: the weather conditions that existed at the time and the fact that there no markers of any kind on the Murphy graves that had supposedly existed for “years before.”

Secondly, crash boats were not like those of the PT (Patrol-Torpedo) class of boats; they were much larger vessels. They were Fairmile (B class) Motor Launches used as emergency response vessels for air-sea rescue operations. Carroll's statement made it appear that he was trying to connect Red Island with the PT-109 and John F. Kennedy who commanded that particular boat during World War II. It is somewhat amazing how many people have compared various boats in Argentia to the PT-109 in order to make a non-existent connection with John F. Kennedy. John Cardoulis din the same thing in the two books that he wrote. See details in section Misconceptions and Fabrications of John Cardoulis.

Thirdly, as for the presentation of a “citation,” this question immediately arose. Since all Mike Carroll did was find the body and help bury it, why would he have been given a “citation” and Bride Mulrooney not have been given one? Also, Ann Dunphy played a role in the event when she took possession of the items found on the bodies and passed them on the officials in Argentia and she did not get any recognition either. Surely, the contribution of the two women was equal to that of Mike Carroll's.

Fourthly, the Americans did not hire Newfoundland fishermen to look for bodies from the Truxtun and Pollux disaster; they had ample manpower of their own for that task. There were a number of fishermen who took it upon themselves to look for bodies, but none of them ever found any. There were only 12 bodies, not “a large number,” ever found in Placentia Bay. Two were picked up close to land by fishermen and the rest washed ashore.

Fifthly, the “American military” is a broad term when looking for information and leaves this question as to Kevin Carroll trying to find the identity of the two sailors. Since the sailors whose bodies were found at Red Island were U.S. Navy personnel, was that branch of the American military contacted? The U.S. Navy turned over a tremendous amount of information pertaining to its operations in Newfoundland to the National Archives and Research Administration (NARA) in Washington. Rossiter's statement, “Years later, Kevin Carroll attempted to get the names of the young men discovered on Red Island but was told by the American military that the records had been lost” gives the impression of a convenient lame excuse for something that was not done. Contrary to Kevin Carroll's claim, the records had not been “lost.”

The USS Truxtun and USS Pollux disaster was one of the most thoroughly documented events in U.S. Navy history. The NARA has all the information one could possibly want to know about that event of February 18, 1942, including the names of all the casualties whose bodies could be identified and the plot numbers in which they were buried. The names of all those who lost their lives — as well as what became of the remains of those that were found — could be easily accessed at any time through U.S. Navy sources or the NARA.

There was nothing mysterious about the discovery of the bodies at Red Island. However, the facts — which were well documented — are actually stranger, and thus more interesting, than the information put forward in the preceding “Red Island mystery.”

The very basic information of the story is correct; the bodies of two American sailors were found and buried as described. However, that is where any similarity to the truth ends. The facts pertaining to the bodies that were buried on Red Island are:

Mike Carroll discovered the partially decomposed body of an American seaman in Jimmy's Cove on Monday, March 2, 1942.

Bridget Mulrooney discovered the partially decomposed body of a “black sailor” on the beach in Wild Cove on Friday, March 6, 1942.

The bodies of all seamen that were found after the Truxtun and Pollux disaster were buried in the communities closest to the area where they were found.

At the time of the Truxtun and Pollux disaster, there was no cemetery in Argentia. The officials who designed the naval and army bases had anticipated the creation of a cemetery for deaths that might occur because of accidents or natural causes, but no section of land had been designated for such a purpose up to that time. Since Argentia was so far removed from combat zones, a cemetery big enough to accommodate large numbers of graves had not been envisioned.

Thus, U.S. Navy officials in Argentia allowed the bodies from the Truxtun and Pollux disaster to be temporarily buried in the cemetery at St. Lawrence until a cemetery was hastily prepared in Argentia. They also allowed bodies that were found in various other Placentia Bay locations to be buried in communities closest to where they were picked up.

While 48 of the bodies buried at St. Lawrence were exhumed and re-interred at Argentia within a week of the disaster, the remainder, and those in other communities, would not be exhumed by a U.S. Navy “body reclamation crew” and re-interred at Hillview Cemetery, Fort McAndrew until later. For some, it would be as long as three years!

There were five non-white crewmembers — one Pilipino and four African-Americans — aboard the USS Truxtun and four of them died in the disaster. Lanier W. Phillips, MATT 3c was the only one to survive.

Tomas Dayo, OC 1c, the Pilipino seaman, was washed away and his body was never recovered. William (Billy) Gene Turner, MATT 2c also washed away and his body was never recovered. The body of Henry Garett Langston, OS 3c was recovered at the site of the disaster and temporarily interred at St. Lawrence. The body of Earl Frederick Houston, MATT 2c — with only a wallet containing money and identification cards in the pants pocket — was found by Bride Mulrooney where it had washed upon the beach in Wild Cove, on the northeast end of Red Island.

There were three bo's'n (boatswain) mates aboard the USS Truxtun that were killed in the 1942 disaster. The bodies of Frederick William Cane, CBM and Lawrence Vincent Healey, BM 2c were never recovered. The body of Andrew Michael Dusak, BM 2c was recovered in Chamber's Cove and buried in St. Lawrence. It was not transferred to the cemetery in Argentia until July 12, 1945. At that time, it was buried in Plot 152, Row F, Section 5.

Bo's'n mates were never without their whistles and — since neither one of those that died was found on Red Island — the story about a bo's'n's whistle being found on a body is a myth. There was no record of a bo's'n's whistle ever being found on Red Island. That claim arose as part of the story's embellishment, a new layer of folklore that had been added for effect, several decades later.

The body that Mike Carroll found while hauling his herring net in Jimmy's Cove — located a few hundred yards northeast of Red Island harbour — was that of Norman Francis Hall, F 2c from the USS Truxtun. The body was identified from the wallet that was in the pocket of his pants and the ID tags around his neck. Hall was a fireman and did not have a b o's'n's whistle in his pocket.

Since both bodies picked up at Red Island had identification on them, why would Kevin Carroll have the need to try and find out their names years after the event. For something that was the most unusual in Red Island 's history, the people would have known the names of the sailors and — as long as the event was talked about, which was supposedly the case on Red Island — that kind of information ordinarily would not have been forgotten.

The body reclamation crew that went to various places in Placentia Bay consisted of 12 men, not 50, as was stated by Kevin Carroll. They traveled from place to place on the USCB Shearwater, a crash boat assigned to U.S. Naval Air Station, Argentia. As a matter of interest, the Shearwater was sold to the Newfoundland TB Association for $5,000 on Wednesday, September 10, 1947; it was then converted into a floating x-ray clinic and re-named MV Christmas Seal.

Ann Dunphy, the postmistress on Red Island, turned over the items that were found on the two bodies to members of the body reclamation crew when they went to Red Island to get the body of Earl Houston. They were not given a bo's'n's whistle. Those articles were recorded by U.S. Navy officials in Argentia and the list did not include a bo's'n's whistle.

The body of African-American Henry Langston was disinterred at St. Lawrence on the morning of Tuesday February 24, 1942 and re-interred in Plot 22, Row B, Section 1 at Hillview Cemetery, Fort McAndrew later that same day.

One particular question jumps to the surface pertaining to the mistake in identifying the graves. If the residents made a cross for the sailor's grave, as Carroll claimed in the seventh paragraph of the preceding story, then why was the grave not identified?

The fact is, they did not make a cross and place it on the grave. Had they done so, the problems that arose later would never have happened.

The two bodies on Red Island were not disinterred at the same time. Indeed, it was five years and four months from the time that the first one was transferred to Hillview Cemetery, Fort McAndrew that the second one was exhumed and transferred to Argentia. The reason for that was because the documentation pertaining to the second body — the body found by Mike Carroll in Jimmy's Cove — had not been placed in the same file as the one pertaining to the other body. Perhaps it was that length of delay, and the fact that the wrong grave had been opened on Red Island in 1942 — as well as the passage of more than half a century — that the facts became so distorted.

Mary Murphy was 68 years old when she died in 1939. Denis (Dinny) Murphy was 69 years old when he died only a couple of months prior to the discovery of the bodies from the Truxtun and Pollux disaster at Red Island. Thus, his grave was not well settled and grown over as claimed in Kevin Carroll's story.

In addition to that situation, snow was on the ground in the entire region until the middle of April that year. There had been a fresh snowfall only a few days before the American body reclamation crew went to Red Island to disinter the remains of Earl Houston. The bodies of the two Americans had been buried in an area approximately 130 feet southwest of where the remains of Denis and Mary Murphy were buried.

At 0815 hours on Wednesday, March 18, 1942, the body reclamation crew left Argentia aboard the Shearwater to get the body of the seaman that had been found on the beach in Wild Cove 12 days earlier. The men arrived at Jim McCarthy's wharf at about 0920 hours and asked to be shown to the area where the body that had been picked up on the beach was buried.

The body reclamation crew was aware of only one body being on Red Island and not one of the residents spoke up or asked why only one body was being disinterred. Actually, it was the first time they had such an experience and they were horrified at the fact the Americans were going to “dig up a dead body” from “consecrated ground.” Like the residents of Argentia when the Americans first arrived, the people of Red Island were very timid and reticent. Perhaps they thought the Americans were going to take only one body at a time!

When Kevin Carroll showed the Americans where the body had been buried, Joe Cheeseman contradicted him and pointed out the grave of Dinny Murphy. With the graves being in close proximity of each other — and non-grown-over ground being found after the snow had been scraped away — neither Cheeseman nor the Americans could tell it was not Earl Houston's grave.

What were believed to be the remains of African-American Earl Houston were exhumed at Red Island and transported to Argentia.

After relating so many details to Tom Rossiter, it was rather odd why Kevin Carroll did not remember Denis Murphy's remains had not been buried for “several years” or mention anything about snow being on the ground. It is also quite peculiar that he remembered two bodies being dug up by mistake when, in reality, it was only one. It is understandable how some minor details get overlooked when someone is relating stories from their past, but failure to remember the primary details of what was supposed to have been a major event in Red Island 's history was quite a departure from the facts.

While performing an examination of the casket's contents prior to interment at Hillview Cemetery, Fort McAndrew, the body reclamation crew discovered that the remains were those of a civilian, not of a U.S. Navy seaman. Upon investigation, officials learned that the reclamation crew had been directed to the wrong grave by Joe Cheeseman. The remains that had been transferred to Argentia were those of Denis Murphy. The casket was closed and put into storage until after lunch time.

At 1400 hours that same afternoon, the body reclamation crew took the casket containing the remains of Denis Murphy back to Red Island and buried it in the grave from they had extracted it. Upon returning the remains of Denis Murphy to Red Island, Mike Carroll led the reclaiming crew to the grave of the American seaman. Even Mike Carroll failed to mention the second grave to the body reclamation crew or ask why it was not being opened.

After examination in a warehouse near the Fleet Dock in Argentia, the remains of Earl Houston were buried in Plot 52, Row B, Section 1 at Hillview Cemetery , Fort McAndrew.

After the wrong body had been dug up on Red Island, Captain Gail Morgan, Commanding Officer, U.S. Naval Operating Base, Argentia directed the body reclamation crew to revitalize the Murphy plot on Red Island.

On Friday, May 1, 1942, the body reclamation crew returned to the Red Island cemetery and leveled off the plot in which Denis and Mary Murphy were buried. Then they assembled a white picket (palings) fence that had been built at the Carpenter Shop in Argentia, not “an elaborate metal enclosure.”

The Murphy grave stood out from the rest of the graves because the fence was made from better grade of lumber and the quality of workmanship was of a higher standard than those around the other graves. The tips of the fence pickets were cut in a fancy design and the entire fence was coated with high-gloss white paint. The fences on the graves on the other graves were either coated with whitewash or had no coating at all.

In the story written by Tom Rossiter, Kevin Carroll was credited with saying, “Out of respect for the Murphy family, the Americans soon constructed an elaborate metal enclosure around their gravesite, which can still be seen in the little cemetery above the community.” Not only was that a completely erroneous and misleading claim, it was also in contradiction with the information that had been compiled at Argentia.

Surely, Carroll should have known that after reading such a claim, someone would go to Red Island to see if what he described really existed! There is no such thing as “an elaborate metal enclosure, which can still be seen in the little cemetery above the community.”

On Tuesday, August 29, 2006, a research group, headed by Argentia historian and researcher Edward Lake, chartered the William and Margaret — launched on May 5, 1996 and crewed by owner Bernard Mulrooney and his brother, Pius — and went to Red Island. They discovered conditions much different from those one might have envisioned after reading Kevin Carroll's description in Tom Rossiter's story.

There were several dozen people on the island when research group arrived. Interviews with Jerome Lambe, who grew up on the island, Vincent Carroll, Kevin's brother, and Maurice Barry, the only person who never left Red Island, gave local acknowledgement to what was already known from U.S. Navy records; there was never an “elaborate metal enclosure” in the cemetery. As Maurice Barry stated, 'There was no metal up there, B'y. It was a nice white fence they brought over from Argentia. It was a really good one though; much better than anyone around here could afford to build!'

The cemetery on Red Island is located on the side of a steep hill northwest of the harbour. The angle of slope is 35 to 45 degrees, depending on which section one is trying to ascend.

After the residents of Red Island were re-settled during the 1960s, the entire cemetery became severely overgrown with trees, brush, and tall grass. Over the past couple of years, the people who go back to fish, or to spend their vacations, have been cutting away the growth to 'reclaim the resting place' of their deceased relatives. Several graves have been completely refurbished with new grave markers and freshly-painted fences. There are a few fenced graves, albeit in poor condition, that have withstood the ravages of time and can be seen as one approaches the harbour.

So far, only a small percentage of the graves that exist there have been exposed. A laborious trek through the brush reveals headstones, pieces of crosses, and parts of fences sticking up at precarious angles through the heavy growth of thick grass and alders. A few of the graves were quite shallow and caved in as their contents decayed.

The fence that the Americans erected around the Murphy graves has rotted away; only small portions of the posts and pieces of picket tops remain. Part of the area to the left of the Murphy plot, where the American seamen were buried, is now a well-trodden path while the rest is covered with a light growth of bushes.

RC cemetery — on side of hill at left-center — on Red Island, as seen from harbour in 2006. From the Edward Lake Argentia Artifact Collection.

Two views of the former burial site of the sailors from the USS Truxtun in relation to the graves of Denis and Mary Murphy, as seen in 2006. From the Edward Lake Argentia Artifact Collection.

The U.S. Army Grave Registration Unit — on behalf of the American Zone, American Graves Registration Service (AZ-AGRS) — arrived at Argentia in June 1947 to carry out the American Graves Repatriation Project. After Captain James Parker, the officer in charge of the operation, checked the master inventory list, it was then they discovered that the remains of Norman Hall had not been transferred to Argentia; they were still in the cemetery on Red Island.

On the morning of Thursday, June 19, 1947, a repatriation crew went to Red Island to get the remains of Norman Hall. That team consisted of Captain James Parker, American civilian embalmers Ralph Taylor and Alfred Van Epps, Newfoundland laborers Daniel (Dan) Cleary, Denis (Din) Spurvey, Joseph (Joe) Shugarue, and the three crewmembers of the salvage barge USSB Mary Anne.

At Red Island, Captain Parker and his team were shown to the grave site by Mike Carroll, the man who found Hall and helped bury him. After more than two hours digging with picks and shovels, the remains of Norman Hall were exhumed and transferred to Argentia aboard the Mary Anne. In Argentia, the remains were examined, cleansed with a preservative solution, placed in a repatriation casket, and stored in a holding warehouse until all the remains from Hillview Cemetery, Fort McAndrew were ready to be shipped back to the United States.

Between October 15 and 17, 1947, all 656 repatriation caskets were loaded aboard the USAT Joseph V. Connolly. On the afternoon of October 17, an impressive “Departure Ceremony” was held at the Army Dock. Contingents from the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, and U.S. Coast Guard; the captain of the Joseph V. Connolly; the Argentia U.S. Navy Band; the U.S. Marine Firing Squad; and the Placentia Branch of the American Legion formed a large square around a bier on the apron of the dock. When everyone was assembled, the U.S. Navy and U.S Army chaplains led four pallbearers — one from each branch of the American military forces — carrying a flag-draped casket, representing all the caskets, into the center of the square as the band played a funeral march.

After the pallbearers placed the casket on the bier, the band played the American national anthem. Then, each chaplain led the group in a prayer for the remains of their comrades that were being shipped back to the United States. The firing of three volleys and the playing of the Taps followed the prayer. The flag was removed from the casket, folded in the traditional military manner, and given to the transport commander. The four pallbearers then carried the casket aboard the Joseph V. Connolly and placed it with the other caskets. One hour later, the USAT Joseph V. Connolly sailed out of Argentia harbour for the Graves Registration Service headquarters in Brooklyn, New York.

As for Mike Carroll receiving a “citation,” that is also a myth. According to archival records and three U.S. Navy officials — Captain Gale Morgan, Lieutenant Edward Quinn, and Lieutenant Edward Poole — who were in Argentia at the time that was not one of the U.S. Navy's practices.

The Department of the Navy never — absolutely never — rewarded Newfoundlanders with medals of any kind. Neither did it present him with a letter of commendation. Indeed, the people of St. Lawrence and Lawn who risked their lives to save American seamen during the Pollux and Truxtun disaster were not afforded that courtesy. They were not given any citations, written or otherwise, for their heroic efforts.

It was only after years of concentrated lobbying by Richard Seamans — father Ensign James Seamans, a survivor of USS Truxtun — that the U.S. government decided to act upon his request. Twelve years after the disaster, the American government opened the United States Memorial Hospital at St. Lawrence in appreciation for the heroic efforts and kindness of the St. Lawrence and Lawn residents during the USS Pollux and USS Truxtun disaster.

In 1950, the local U.S. Navy officials at Argentia began issuing letters of commendation to Newfoundland employees who made significant contributions — in the form of not having time away from work because of accidents, giving suggestions that led to marked improvements in the general operations, or demonstrating an outstanding level of work ethic — to U.S. Naval Station, Argentia and later to U.S. Naval Facility, Argentia. U.S. servicemen were also given letters of commendation for the same reasons as the Newfoundlanders.

Now, some of you who are reading this might be saying, “Oh the people of St. Lawrence and Lawn did get letters of commendation, and that is true. However, those letters of commendation were not formally from the Department of the Navy in Washington, D.C., and they were distributed 46 years and four months after the fact.

During the summer of 1988, the people of St. Lawrence sponsored the first USS Truxtun and USS Pollux disaster reunion and asked the survivors still living to visit the place where they had been rescued. During that celebration, Captain L. C. Bucher, commanding officer at Argentia from July 1988 to June 1991, had a gift set prepared for the people of Lawn and St. Lawrence who took part in the rescue of 186 American sailors in 1942. Each person was presented with a wood-and-glass case containing an American flag, a baseball cap with “USS Truxtun Rescuer 1942” emblazoned across the front, and a letter of commendation signed by Captain Boucher.

On the base of the case containing the American flag was a brass plate, which read: “In Memory of USS Truxtun — USS Pollux February 19, 1942.” It was obvious from the inscription that somebody had not been paying attention to historical documents. The Truxtun and Pollux disaster occurred on February 18, not 19.

That was the one and only time in the more than half a century that the U.S. military occupied Argentia in which Newfoundlanders were recognized in such a public way. Even then, it was by local U.S. Navy officials in Argentia and not by those in Washington, D.C.

The following is a copy of the letter of commendation that was given to Augustus (Gus) Etchegary in 1988.

The baseball cap and American flag presented to Gus Etchegary in 1988. From the Edward Lake Argentia Artifact Collection.