In memory
Local sailorÕs death recounted in new book
By Nancy Thornton - Acantha reporter
News of Warren DaleyÕs death at the hands of the Japanese did not reach Choteau until September 1945, five months after he died.
His remains did not come home until May 1948, when he was buried with full military honors in Choteau cemetery, the first such burial of a repatriated deceased serviceman in Choteau.
Shelly Quinn Anderson, 54, recently published the story of what happened to Daley, 23, and his fellow crewmen in French Indochina, now Vietnam, between January and April 1945. She is the daughter of the sole surviving member of the crew, Bill Quinn, 86.
The book, ÒFor a Bag of Rice, My FatherÕs War,Ó is a 283-page, hardbound volume that includes 30 pages of illustrations and photographs.
Choteau retiree Bob Dellwo, 83, who served in WWIIÕs Pacific theater, was one of DaleyÕs pallbearers.
ÒI remember WarrenÕs dad. During the war, he was the guy that issued the stamps so you could buy gas, food, tires, rations and anything rubber,Ó Dellwo said. The Daley family moved to Fairfield in 1946, but WarrenÕs father, Halvor, was the Teton County Clerk of Court for a time.
Dellwo recalled his stint as a pallbearer and honor guard member at veteransÕ funerals in Choteau, and as far away as Billings. ÒWe were all home from the service and belonged to the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. We did a lot of the burying. ItÕs always a sad thing,Ó Dellwo said.
He added, ÒI was lucky to come back. When youÕre 18 or 19, you think nothing can happen to you,Ó he said, remembering what happened to Warren, who was a year ahead of him in high school.
BobÕs brother, Jim Dellwo, 84, served in WWIIÕs European theater, and was WarrenÕs age. They both graduated in 1941 from Teton County High School in Choteau. Jim recently pulled out a dog-eared copy of ÒThe Growl,Ó the high schoolÕs yearbook for 1941. Jim was the class president for the 38-member senior class and Warren wrote a one-page history of Choteau for the publication.
Jim Dellwo said he never saw Warren after high school, but he remembers him for being a member of the Teton County BulldogsÕ football team, and for singing in the Glee Club chorus.
In the yearbook, Daley said his hobby was hunting rabbits and he wanted his epitaph to be ÒThey say the best of men are molded out of faults.Ó
The best and the worst of humanity are recorded in QuinnÕs account. Surviving the crash of their U.S. Navy Òflying boatÓ on Jan. 26, 1945, off the Indo-China coast, the 11-man crew of Americans hid for weeks in the hills helped by the French underground, in what was then a Japanese-occupied French colony. They successfully eluded the Japanese until a native reported where the crew was holed up.
On April 27, 1945, the Japanese reached the outpost and the fliers surrendered after a brief skirmish. Six of the eight survivors, including Daley, who had been at the outpost, were taken one by one behind a nearby building and killed. Daley was the last to die.
Five Japanese soldiers were sentenced to death and a sixth Japanese soldier received life in prison for the unlawful killing of the American prisoners of war.
Quinn and one other crewman were left unharmed, and were subsequently paraded down the streets of a nearby town where they were pelted with rocks from the hostile crowd. Two crewmen who had left the outpost were never heard from again. One crewman, disguised as a Frenchman, was rescued by an submarine crew off the coast, near where their seaplane had gone down.
Quinn tells the story of the months spent in the hills, and what happened after his crewmen were executed.
WarrenÕs brother, Wayne, who lives in Washington state, plans to write his own book about his brother using letters that he discovered two years ago. His father and mother had written them over the nine-month period of time that Warren was missing in action. The letters were returned to the Daley family when Warren was declared missing and presumed dead. ÒThey tell a great deal about the community,Ó he said.
ÒDadÕs effort on the ration board was not one that was a popularity contest winner. Our car was vandalized with sugar in the gas tank during WWII,Ó Wayne said.
The boysÕ mother, Emma, who was very active in the Choteau community, died of breast cancer in 1947.
Wayne said that Warren was a rather quiet person but very outgoing and congenial. He was active in the Methodist youth group in Choteau, and a member of the Civilian Conservation Corps crews that built the shelters in the Bob Marshall Wilderness in the early 1940s. He was in his second year at Montana State College when he enlisted in the Navy in 1943.
ÒBecause of DadÕs war record and the fact that all the young men were enlisting must have played a role in his decision to join the Navy,Ó Wayne said.
Warren had a sweetheart in Choteau and would have gone on to complete his engineering education after the war. He loved flying and talked about buying a plane after the war, Wayne said.
ÒI am sure that the news probably hastened MomÕs decline in health. I still recall the night in the fall of 1945 when Dad returned from his visit with the pilot (Quinn) and told us the story of the plane going down and the crew hiding from the Japanese, their capture and the execution of the crew including Warren,Ó Wayne Daley said.
Anderson said that the trial records of the Japanese soldiers were declared secret and were not released until 1995. ÒDad was in worse shape than after the war,Ó Anderson said, explaining how devastated Quinn was after reading the transcript of what the accused did behind the building on April 27, 1945.
She said she kept a picture of Warren in his naval uniform on her desk as she wrote the manuscript of her fatherÕs account. Anderson is a resources conservation and development coordinator for the Natural Resources and Conservation Service office in Casper, Wyo. ÒFor a Bag of Rice, My FatherÕs War,Ó is her first book-length work.
She did not learn about her fatherÕs ordeal until 1988. ÒMy dad would tell stories about the war, but it was the fun things. I always thought war was fun. Then he told me the story for the book. He had kept the bad stuff to himself,Ó Anderson said.
Anderson is searching for the living relatives of the deceased crewmen so that she can give them a copy of her book. Local historian Nancy Thornton was able to put her in touch with WarrenÕs two surviving brothers, Wayne and Theodore, who moved to Washington state in 1961.
Choteau retiree Ralph Thornton, who has read a fair number of true accounts of WWII, including AndersonÕs book, said it is unusual in that it does not center around a battle.
ÒIt highlights the fact that there are countless different stories that people tell about WWII. They were flying over the ocean and along the coast doing reconnaissance. They were unprepared and did not get the training for what they really needed to know if they crash-landed,Ó he said, recalling that the crew did not speak French and had no French-English dictionary.
ÒIt made it harder. They had no clue what the French said or would do,Ó he said.
Copies of the book are for sale at $25, postage included. Write to Anderson at 623 S. Durbin St., Casper WY 82601, for more information. AndersonÕs e-mail address is rjmoore77@q.com. The book is also available at the Choteau Public Library.
© 2008 - Choteau Acantha