Gunner's Mate 2nd Class William Francis Hellstern, One of USS Oklahoma's Unknowns-- Part 1

From the May 18, 2018, 9 News NBC, Colorado "Missing sailor killed at Pearl Harbor brought home after 76 years" by Noel Brennan.

Years ago, before she passed away, Ted Hummell's mother, Jeanne, cut off a piece of her hair and placed it in her Bible next to locks of hair from her siblings.  One of those locks of hair belonged to Ted's uncle, Gunner's Mate 2nd Class William Francis Hellstern, a man Ted never got to meet because he died on the USS Oklahoma that day in 1941.

The 20-year-old from Peoria, Illinois, never made it off his ship.

Letters were sent from the Navy to the family afterwards.  On December 20, 1941,  Rear Admiral  Randall Jacobs, wrote:

"The Navy Department deeply regrets to inform you that your son, William Francis Hellstern, Gunner's Mate 2nd Class, U.S. Navy, is missing following action in performance of his duty and in the service of his country."

Another from February 1942, began, "After exhaustive search it has been found impossible to locate your son."

--GreGen

About the Hoback Boys-- Part 7: The Bible

Raymond was never found.    Several of his company mates subsequently reported seeing him lying on the beach near the water's edge, whether wounded or dead they did not know.

What is clear is that he, along with dozens  others like him, was taken by the tide into the sea.

A word now about Providence, which manifested itself in the form of a package that arrived at our house a few days later.  It was a book sent by a soldier from W. Virginia, who had landed a day after Raymond had gone ashore.

"While walking on the beach on D-Day plus one (June 7),  he wrote, "...I came upon this Bible, and as most any person would do, I picked it up from the sands to keep it from being destroyed."  It was the Bible my mother had given to Raymond for Christmas in 1938.  It was her only tangible connection to her missing son.

She treasured it for the rest of her life, as I treasure it today.

This Story Puts It in Perspective.  --GreGen

About the Hoback Boys-- Part 2: The Bedford Boys

Raymond received a Bible from my mother as a Christmas gift when he was eighteen.  Receiving your own Bible  was to undergo a rite of passage, and we took it seriously.  Raymond certainly did, and he kept his Bible close at hand.  I know he took it with him when the Bedford company mobilized in 1941.

Before the mobilization, the company would go off to this or that army camp to train for a week or two.  When they came back from the end of  maneuvers, everyone would turn out to welcome them home.  One of my strongest memories is the joy in the faces of those boys  as they climbed off the trucks, because they knew their lives could get back to normal.

Once the company mobilized, though, the boys did not come back except as individuals whenever they could get a pass or furlough.  Their joy of coming home was real enough, but the army a greater reality.

After Pearl Harbor, so was the war.

--GreGen

Bedford, Va. Remembers D-Day-- Part 4: "Where Are My Boys?"

Several weeks after D-Day, a package arrived at the Hoback's home.  It contained Raymond's Bible.  Lucille now treasures it.  For decades it sat prominently in the family room, never to be moved.  It is inscribed "Raymond S. Hoback, from mother, Xmas, 1938."

Her parents never got over their loss.  She remembers her mother, in her dying days, waking from nightmares screaming, "Where are my boys?"

April Cheek-Messier, a local resident who is president of the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, says the sadness that lingered in town for many years has been replaced by "immense patriotism."

On the 75th anniversary, Lucille Hoback Boggess still feels the loss:  "You wonder what they would have done with their lives, how Bedford would be different if all those boys had come hone," she says.  "You never forget.  I miss them every day."

GreGen