A Little Music For Memorial Day
Have a great weekend everyone!
Posted by Unknown @ 5/23/2008 06:28:00 PM
Friday, May 23, 2008
Have a great weekend everyone!
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3 Comments:
awesome!
Thanks Joe. That is a heartbreaking post and very fitting for Memorial Day which shows the reality of devastation caused by war.
While going through my deceased Step Mothers items in an old trunk I discovered in the rafters above our family garage, I found a Purple Heart awarded to her first husband Donald W. Sego, USN. I also found the telegram from the War Department informing her that her husband was "Missing in Action" He was a member of the Oil Tanker USS Pecos, a refueling ship that was sunk by Japan in the sea of Java. She had completed refueling two Destroyers then proceeded to pick up survivors from another ship. The Pecos then came under attack by Japanese airplanes. The two Destroyers, who had just been refueled and were on their way, returned to answer her call for help. They were also blown up along with the Oil Tanker Pecos, in the Battle of Java Sea, on March 1, 1942
According to records, only 232 persons were recovered and unfortunately her husband was not one of them. Her telegram, which arrived many months later, was dated December, 1942.
She had to wait seven years before the government would legally declare Sego dead. According to her remaining family members, his wife's mental state was altered permanentely. She married my father about 15 years later and never talked about Donald Sego or the war with us.
After searching the web for information, I found his tombstone in a cemetary in the Philipines, along with other military personnel lost in the Sea of Java battle, whose bodies were never found and are permanently memorialized.
The Sego's were married about six years and she traveled to China and the Phillipines and where ever the Tanker was based. According to their letters, when it became evident that war was imminent, our government ordered all familes of military personnel back to the states.
They had no children and Donald had no siblings, so my brother and I are trying to locate his closest blood relatives in either Virgina or Indiana to pass on the legacy of his pictures, letters to his wife, his many metals and of course, his Purple Heart, so that they too will learn about their treasured family Hero.
God Bless our Troops and keep them safe and I also wish you all a safe weekend.
Thanks for that Joe.
And thank you Nina for sharing that story. It's quite remarkable. Good luck in your search for Mr. Sego's next of kin. It's a wonderful thing you're doing.
xoxo
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