Hale Family in the War

Hale Family
Three of the Hale boys served in World War 2. Leland joined the Navy and served as an armed guard aboard merchant ships. They helped protect shipping between the US and Britain. It was a dangerous job, many mechant ships were sunk by German U-Boats. One convoy that Leland was with bravely took supplies thru the north sea to Murmansk, Russia. Maurice joined the US Army and was trained as a medic. When the US entered the war he was already stationed in Alaska. He treated men wounded or frostbitten when the Japanese struck the Aleutian Islands. In 1943 he was transfered to England. He trained as a battlefield medic and was ready to land on the Normandy beaches D-Day. Just before D-Day he was transfered to hospital duty at the 96th General Hospital in Staffordshire. There he treated our men who suffered from "shell-shock" , "battle fatigue"and other brain injuries. Donald Joined the US Navy and volunteered for submarine duty. He trained as a torpedoman and was assigned to the USS Triton. (SS201) Triton patrolled the south Pacific. Many tons of oil and gas, iron and steel, were never to arrive in Japan. Triton was also preventing ammuntion and reinforcements from arriving at Guadalcanal and other islands in the Soloman area. This brave message, on March 11th 1943, was the last recieved from the Triton "Two groups of smokes, 5 or more ships each, plus escorts Am chasing". Donald, and all of his shipmates, were killed when a Japanese destroyer (probably one of those escorts) "Depth charged" them.
Grandmother had three "Blue-Stars" in her window. One for each son who had gone to war. After Donald was killed she had two blue stars and one Gold Star, to signify that one of her sons had paid the "Ultimate Price" for our freedoms. Recently I found some letters that my mother (Auntie Clarice to most of you) had saved for all these years. Two of them were from Mrs Elmo Hale, Project City, California. The first letter, dated January 1943, was to ask if anyone had gotten a letter from Donald as Grandmother had not and she was worried. The second letter, dated March 1943, was to say that Grandmother had recieved a letter from the Navy saying that Donald's submarine was missing. She went on to say, "When will this terrible terrible war be over so the boys can come home and there be peace". It wasn't until late April that she got the official news that one of her beloved sons would never come home.
USS Triton in 1941, Now on eternal patrol, God rest you all.
The next generation saw Howard and Bill Hale, Everett's sons, join the US Marine Corps and serve in Korea. Every time I go to the polls to vote I thank all of the young men and women who fought to preserve our freedoms. I wrote a little poem to say why I vote.... I voted today I am proud to say I do it on every election day I vote because I have to you see, Young soldiers have paid the price for me They paid with arms and legs and lives, They paid when orphans were made of their children and widows were made of their wives. ©Glenn Hale 2006
Page last updated April 20, 2010

Grandmother had three "Blue-Stars" in her window.