Home | Site Map | Photos | Contacts | Continue =>

Jim Morley

Jim and Evelyn Morley live in La Crescent, Minnesota.

Jim was a Pharmacist’s Mate 1st Class and one of the leading petty officers who helped shape our crew. The following letter was written by Jim to the most recently located shipmate, Yeoman 1st Class Howard Riley.

[Editor’s note: Howard was terminally ill, and was residing in a nursing home. He was sent a VCR and this story of LST 791, which his daughter said he enjoyed. He died a few months later.]

Howard Riley
Roslyn Nursing Home
Roslyn, Pennsylvania

Dear Howard,

It Pleases me very much to find another former shipmate. You are the most recent. I do hope this finds you feeling better. As you know, I have talked to your daughter several times. I am glad she is there for you.

How about you? How old are you? How long were you in the Coast Guard? Where was your hometown? Where were you stationed after the war? Several of the others re-enlisted after discharge. Phil Oakes—Navy, and Caesar Mestre—Seabees. Caesar retired as a chief warrant but Phil didn’t stay in very long. Phil has a very large electrical contracting business. None of his kids want it and he can’t sell it.

I just took a break and went through some of my stuff (I have boxes of literature and pictures) to see if I had a picture of you. I probably wouldn’t recognize you. A lot of the pictures have no names on them. Please send me one of you on board the 791, or even later, when you can.

I assume you were the only yeoman we had, since you are the only one listed. You must have been busy, with all the logs and the lists that I received. Was that your doing? Thanks a lot. It took me years to get a crew list at the time of commissioning, 27 September, 1944. As you can see, I was no yeoman. I recently purchased this electronic typewriter and am still learning to operate the gadgets on it.

At present we have three of the officers still living. Ed Horton was the Exec. Charles Berlau was Engineering, and Reed Adams was the First Lt. (Deck). Reed is very active in our reunions. He arranged for us to partake of activities and places at both the Air Force Academy and the Coast Guard Academy. Those were memorable reunions. Mr. Bradford was living in Texas with his daughter and was active. But later developed Alzheimer’s disease and passed away in 1995. He came aboard after we got to New Orleans. Edward Horton lives in Hopedale, Massachusetts, Near Boston.

Ralph Bohrer came to our reunion in 1996, and passed away the next year.

He spent most of his years working for a Becton-Dickson Medical Supply Company. He was really happy to be there. Another officer who came aboard later was Frank Ruppert. I kept in touch with him for awhile. Then one day I got a letter from his twin brother who informed me that that he had found him dead on his boat in California. Coincidentally, Jim Cutler was also found dead on his boat in Miami. He was supposed to be at the 9th reunion (held in Tampa).

I made an intensive search for the Captain. The first year we went to Florida we went through Kentucky, where he was born and went to school. I went through the phone book; nobody seemed to know him. I talked to a lady who was taking care of his first wife, but she wouldn’t give me any information, except she did mention Hampton. I made a note of it at the time and when we got home I found it. I called a lawyer friend of mine and he said to give the info to his secretary and she would get back to me when she found anything (this was 1987). In about 30 minutes she called me back. The good news was she talked to his wife (in Hampton, Virginia) and she gave her the bad news; he had passed away the week before from a heart condition. As you will read in his obituary he had three daughters from his first marriage.

Apparently he had written quite extensively to them all during the war, as he compiled a journal based on all these letters. Although he never lived to complete it, his wife did, right after his death. She made me several copies, which I passed around to the others but managed to keep one and will send it to you, if you will be sure to return it when finished. Also, did you know he was in much of the North African and Sicilian campaign? I have a few copies of that journal; I’ll send you one. I only had a few occasions to talk to him and came away with a good impression. I think most of the crew spoke well of him and he treated us fairly. How did you feel about him? I keep in touch with his wife.

I shall finally close this epistle with a little about my family and myself. I received my discharge on Dec. 19, 1945 at Detroit, Michigan. Just made it home for Christmas. I was lucky in that I had a job waiting for me. I had worked in the local bank several years before the war started. I was one of seven kids including five boys and two girls. Three brothers have passed away. Most of us were born in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan (a great Coast Guard town). I stayed home a year and decided there was no future for me in a small town bank, so I enrolled at Alexyan Brothers Hospital school of nursing in Chicago. It was a new field—but promising—for men, and I graduated in 1950. I worked in a TB sanitarium in Waukegan, IL for a year and a half, then to a V. A. hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After the first few days, I decided it wasn’t for me. Most of the nurses had been in the army or navy and thought they were still in. They all wore their gold and silver bars and I know some of them expected me to salute them. There was one nurse in particular I took a great liking to, Evelyn Burnett, and we shortly became engaged.

When I left the V. A., I went back to school at the Minneapolis General Hospital and pursued a course in anesthesia. I really enjoyed it, but wished I had gone to medical school. I took some courses at the University of Minneapolis, and eventually got my degree. Evelyn and I got to know each other a little more, as she kept working at the V. A. On August 7, 1954 were married at Sauk Rapids, Minnesota. We continued to live in Minneapolis, and our first child was born there. Three more just came along in various places throughout the Midwest.

We ended up here in 1971 and I went to work for a large clinic, across the Mississippi River in Lacrosse, Wisconsin. I spent 17 years there, retiring in 1985. We intend to stay here for the duration (does that sound familiar ?). By the way, we have seven grandchildren—six girls and one boy. They all live in Minnesota, two to three hours away. By the way, they are all very smart, talented, fairly obedient and handsome, beautiful girls. Our one boy is all of that and at 8 years old, plays the piano beautifully. His sister, at 12, plays the violin, beautifully.

A little bragging is not sinful. And this is the story of our lives.

We both have some serious medical problems, which I won’t go into, but we are both being watched closely and are coping with our situation. Our kids keep in constant contact and have suggestions from time to time, which we usually ignore, but consider.
I began the search for the crew the year after I retired. I started in the public library, in their phone books. After a few hundred letters and some phone calls, by 1987 I had found about 25. Got several responses from the original crew list, even though the addresses were over 45 years old. I have kept all the letters I have received since I started this quest. It has been fun and I shall continue to the end. Last year I found a fellow LST Coastie who has a computer with 800,000 names on it and doesn’t charge anything. He found five new ones for me. Reed Adams and four others have “on line” computers and have found Charles Berlau and Tom Sanchez (now Gonzalez).

I got several names through the V. A. They charge $2.00 per name, won’t give out the addresses, but will forward mail to the last address they have. I have found a few that way. I had responses from wives, parents, sons, and daughters. Many thanked me for what we had done for our country.

In the letters I received from the crew, many expressed the fact that they never thought of themselves as heroes. We did a good job and can be proud of it. Compared to many other ships and crews, we were very lucky as far as anyone getting hurt. Our first reunion was held across the river from Cincinnati, Ohio. I felt that was appropriate since we had gone right past it on the way to New Orleans. We had 21 guys and their wives. We certainly came as strangers, but left as shipmates. It was a great, memorable occasion, and we have had one almost every year since. Now we are lucky to have 10 or 14 who come. But we are getting older every year. We have been all over the country and enjoyed everyone.

So, I think I have covered the years. I hope you will enjoy reading this and, if possible let me hear from you. Our very best to you and yours. You are on our prayer list.

Sincerely, Jim & Evelyn Morley

Continue =>