Independence Day in a Lifeboat

[Buford57]

My Aunt Marion spent July 4, 1941 in a lifeboat in the North Atlantic. As part of a team of Red Cross nurses on their way to England to staff a hospital donated by Harvard University she was aboard the Norwegian freighter Vigrid when it was torpedoed by U-371 on June 24. By the 4th they were down to the last of their water, which had been rationed at4 ounces per day. Their fireworks had to wait until the 5th when Vigrid's captain fired their last flare after sighting a ship. They were rescued by the Charles F. Hughes (DD428) and landed in Iceland on July 12. After treatment for severely frostbitten feet by doctors at the British base there she returned to the USA. In October she was medically cleared to return to work. She was able to reactivate the US Naval Reserve commission she had resigned to join the Red Cross, asking only that when she was activated she be assigned to “someplace warm”.

On December 2 she was activated, spent the next six months training corpsmen in San Diego and the balance of the war at a Naval hospital “somewhere in the South Pacific”. Well, at least it was warm. Her oldest brother was serving in the Army in the same sector and she was thankful for never having him as a patient. Another brother served in the ETO and a third joined the Army Air Force just in time to serve in the Army of Occupation in Japan. She is second from the left in the first row.




So when my neighbors are still setting off fireworks and playing Mariachi music at 3AM I tell myself “at least you're not in a lifeboat.”

Hurray for the 4th of July and those who served and are serving.

 

[paddlingman]

Best Independence Day story I've read today. Aunt Marion was courageous and a cutie too!

 

[Tom Beavert]

What a story! Dad was a seabee, he said as soon as the 'ladies ' showed up they knew their work was done, and they were shipped to the next island.
Tom B

 

[Max242]

My Aunt Marion spent July 4, 1941 in a lifeboat in the North Atlantic. As part of a team of Red Cross nurses on their way to England to staff a hospital donated by Harvard University she was aboard the Norwegian freighter Vigrid when it was torpedoed by U-371 on June 24. By the 4th they were down to the last of their water, which had been rationed at4 ounces per day. Their fireworks had to wait until the 5th when Vigrid's captain fired their last flare after sighting a ship. They were rescued by the Charles F. Hughes (DD428) and landed in Iceland on July 12. After treatment for severely frostbitten feet by doctors at the British base there she returned to the USA. In October she was medically cleared to return to work. She was able to reactivate the US Naval Reserve commission she had resigned to join the Red Cross, asking only that when she was activated she be assigned to “someplace warm”.

On December 2 she was activated, spent the next six months training corpsmen in San Diego and the balance of the war at a Naval hospital “somewhere in the South Pacific”. Well, at least it was warm. Her oldest brother was serving in the Army in the same sector and she was thankful for never having him as a patient. Another brother served in the ETO and a third joined the Army Air Force just in time to serve in the Army of Occupation in Japan. She is second from the left in the first row.

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So when my neighbors are still setting off fireworks and playing Mariachi music at 3AM I tell myself “at least you're not in a lifeboat.”

Hurray for the 4th of July and those who served and are serving.

Thanks for sharing. So important to see these stories and not forget.

 

[Enzo Rules]

Great story about great ladies. Thank you for sharing it.

 

[Rudi]

A great tale! We must always be thankful that we are Americans.

 

[lihpster]

Not everybody fought with a gun in their hands. Thank you, Aunt Marion, for your service. It is deeply appreciated and will not be forgotten.

 

[RM Vivas]

Wikipedia:

USS Charles F. Hughes (DD-428) was a Benson-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War II. She was named for Charles Frederick Hughes.

Charles F. Hughes was launched 16 May 1940 by Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington; sponsored by Mrs. C. F. Hughes; and commissioned 5 September 1940.

1941​

After training operations in the Caribbean, Charles F. Hughes reported at Newport, Rhode Island 3 April 1941 to join in the U.S. Navy's support of Britain. In September 1941, Hughes and other American destroyers took up the responsibility for providing convoy escort in the western Atlantic.

Twice during this period, Hughes rescued survivors from sunken merchantmen. The first rescue came as she steamed escorting the Marine forces bound for the occupation of Iceland in July 1941, when she saved fourteen survivors, including four American Red Cross nurses, from a torpedoed Norwegian freighter. On 16 October, she rescued seven men from a lifeboat, survivors of the British Freighter SS HATASU, a straggler form convoy ON19, sunk a few days previously by U-431.

Best,
RM Vivas