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Re: Medals Bring Family Closure

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: November 29, 2003

"Medals bring family closure
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WWII soldier's death on troop ship shrouded in secrecy

Pat Flannery
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 29, 2003 12:00 AM

Tony Martinez spent Christmas Eve 1944 playing cards in the hold of the S.S. Leopoldville, killing time as the Belgian ship ferried its cargo of 66th Infantry Division dogfaces across the English Channel.

It was freezing that night, and Clarence J. Daugherty recalls that the sea was so choppy that "inside that boat, there were guys throwing up all over the place."

John G. "Johnny" Vasquez, another of Martinez's "B" Company buddies, stayed below, but Daugherty went topside rather than brave the mess inside.

All three were 18 at the time, Vasquez celebrating his birthday the day before he boarded the Leopoldville. They'd gone through basic training and bounced around the states together. They were tough as leather and spoiling for combat as one of World War II's defining battles was taking shape. Their unit, only three weeks into England from stateside, was being sent to reinforce Allied troops at the Battle of the Bulge.

Martinez remembers Vasquez, a Globe native, as "a cocky little guy, and he was tough.

"He was always telling us he wanted to go into combat. It was quite an outfit. We were gung-ho." Vasquez had reason to be pumped: one brother was fighting in the Pacific, and another was among the troops waiting to be reinforced in the Battle of the Bulge.

Vasquez never made it to his brother's aid. Five miles from the French port of Cherbourg, a German submarine torpedoed the Leopoldville. Nobody knows how Vasquez died, though Martinez last saw him below deck. His body was never found.

Six weeks ago, nearly 59 years after the fact, Vasquez's family finally found closure with the help of Arizona Congressman Ed Pastor. In a ceremony in Globe, Vasquez's Purple Heart and other military medals and citations were presented posthumously to his brothers and sisters after years of questions about his death.

Pastor said it is important to not simply recognize veterans, but also the sacrifices made by their families. He said the restoration of Vasquez's awards, as with many similar requests made by aging World War II veterans or their families, helps heal old wounds.

"It recognizes the service of the individual . . . but it's also about families knowing that their fathers, their brothers in the service are finally being recognized," Pastor said.

The Leopoldville's sinking is a woeful tale that has only come to full light in the past decade as the British government declassified documents related to the incident and the History Channel aired a painstaking documentary explaining what happened that night.

The reason for secrecy: Allied embarrassment that the ship was caught off guard, resulting in the deaths of 763 soldiers. Many of them may have been saved were it not for a series of Christmas Eve blunders.

For example, the ship had naval escorts, but no air cover. The Belgian crew abandoned ship immediately after the torpedo hit. And though the vessel stayed afloat for a time, snafus prevented the ship from being towed to shore and thwarted a timely rescue effort. Hundreds died before being fished from the frigid seas.

Daugherty, on deck when the torpedo hit, threw on a life vest and leapt to the deck of the British destroyer Brilliant, one of the Leopoldville's escorts, as it bobbed perilously alongside on rough winter seas.

Daugherty was one of the lucky ones. Some men fell into the icy waters and drowned. Others were crushed as they slid between the ships' hulls trying to jump to safety. When the escorts filled up, those remaining aboard the Leopoldville were left to their own devices.

Several American tugs from Cherbourg eventually arrived to try to tow the foundering ship to safety. But the Leopoldville's captain had dropped its anchor after the boat was hit.

"He never should've done that," said Walt Belden, 82, of Kingman, who skippered one of several tugs on the scene. "We could've towed it in, but when he dropped his hook, we couldn't pull him."

Instead, the tugs resorted to pulling men and bodies out of the drink. "I've never seen anything like it in my life," Belden said.

Martinez dove into the water just after the torpedo hit and floated for two hours. He eventually snatched the tow rope of one of the tugs and was hoisted aboard.

More than 1,400 troops survived, but Vasquez was among the many who simply vanished. His mother, the late Mary Vasquez of Globe, didn't find out until January 15, 1945, when a terse Western Union telegram informed her that her son was missing in action "in the European area."

While the government knew in detail what had happened, it didn't immediately report it to families. Some soldiers were even told to keep the incident quiet, though Daugherty said he wrote his mother about it soon after.

Vasquez's family eventually received a letter from the War Department mentioning the sinking in the English Channel but little else. A second telegram and letter changed Vasquez's status to killed in action in March 1945.

For years, his family wasn't sure exactly what had happened and "we'd assumed he'd been killed in battle," said Dave Yanez, a Glendale Air Force retiree who is Vasquez's nephew. It wasn't until public interest in the sinking spiked in the mid-1990s that more information came to light about what had happened.

Eventually, Martinez, who lives in Grover Beach, Calif., hooked up with members of his old unit.

Yanez said Martinez contacted him in 2000 to suggest the family seek recognition for Vasquez and apply for his medals. At first, Yanez said, the Army didn't respond. In 2001, Pastor got involved.

"We found that just to find the records to substantiate the awards takes time," Pastor said. "The good news is, we were able to find the documentation."
Martinez and Daugherty, of Willoughby Hills, Ohio, have visited the site of the sinking. They found Vasquez's name on a memorial to the missing erected in Normandy, France. Even today, the memories are tough to bear.

©2003Arizona Central"