Clarence Rygwelski: one of countless heroes to be remembered on Veterans Day

by Peter Jakey, Managing Editor

?Oh tell me what were their names, tell me what were their names? Did you have a friend on the good Rueben James??

Lyrics from the song “The Sinking of the Reuben James,” written by Woody Guthrie. Ted King, 87, of Alpena knew many names and faces of the men lost on the USS Reuben James, which included childhood friend Clarence Rygwelski. His memories of Rygwelski and the times they spent together burns brightly.

The Reuben James was the first Navy ship to be sunk before World War II. The stricken ship sank beneath the cold North Atlantic 68 years ago on Halloween Day 1941 and more than five weeks prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Seaman second class, Clarence ?Monk? Rygwelski, was among the 101 men who lost their lives that morning. His named is forever engraved on the Memorial Stone at the Presque Isle County Courthouse. He is one of the countless heroes to be remembered Wednesday on Veterans Day. KING HASN?T forgot.

While the cobwebs have time have clouded details of the past, King?s recollection of the events leading up to the sinking and during the war come back faster than he can get the thoughts out of his mouth. King, who grew up in Rogers City, remembers swimming with his old friend out to the offshore slide at the beach in Rogers City and then testing their skills with a swim to the Hoeft dock. While in high school, Clarence worked at the family business, Rygwelski Market, and made a decent wage delivering groceries. ?He was paid $5 a week and we thought he was rich,? said King, from his home just north of the Alpena City limits. The two young men, only 18, enlisted in the Navy for six years with John Kuchinski, Harry Adrian and Paul Hilla, who went through a rigorous eight weeks of boot camp at Norfolk, Virginia.

?After boot camp we had seven days of leave to go home,? said King. It wasn?t much time to get to Rogers City and back, he said. They went anyway. It would be the last time Clarence?s family would see him alive. Upon their return to Norfolk, both men were assigned to their respective destroyers. King went to the USS Stirtenant, while Rygwelski ended up on the ill-fated James. The two didn?t see each again until September when King?s ship docked in Portland, Maine. ?I saw his ship across from mine, so I went to see him. He was in good spirits. We visited for a couple of hours.? Rygwelski was getting his paperwork in order to become a storekeeper, a good position in the Navy. It was the last time he would see his friend. ?The quiet war was starting,? said King. ?The American people knew very little about this.?

IN MARCH 1941, Reuben James joined the convoy escort force established to protect convoy ships carrying war material to Great Britain. U.S. ships such as Reuben James would escort the vessels as far as Iceland, where they would be turned over to destroyers of the Royal Navy. On October 17, 1941, the USS Kearny was destroyed when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat. Seventeen men were lost, but the ship would limp into port and not become the first American ship to go down. That distinction would go to the James 14 days later. Reuben James sailed from Naval Station Argentia, Newfoundland, Oct. 23, 1941 with four other destroyers to escort an eastbound convoy. She positioned herself between an ammunition ship in the convoy and the known position of a ?wolf pack? of German U-boats.

Around 5:30 a.m. Oct. 31, Reuben James was torpedoed by U-552 off the coast of Iceland. She was hit forward by a torpedo, and her entire bow was blown off when a magazine exploded. The bow sank immediately; the aft section remained afloat for five minutes before going down. ?I WAS AHEAD of him (Rygwelski) in another convoy and had arrived in Iceland about 24 hours before they would have arrived, but she never made it,? said King. ?We were told by our captain the following morning. It was something we didn?t want to hear, but we knew it could have been us. We didn?t get

a report of survivors for a week.? King knew 20 of the men. Years after the war, Lieutenant Captain Eric Topp of U-552 would say the torpedo was intended for a merchant ship in the convoy, yet the James had the misfortune of crossing into the path of the torpedo. Clarence?s mother Olive received word four days later in the form of a telegram. ?After the Reuben sank, my ship made five more trips (across the Atlantic),? said King. ?We got lucky, just one scary incident with a U-boat. We sank it.? The Stirtenant was transferred to the Caribbean for patrol duty, but was sunk April 26, 1942 in the Gulf of Mexico.

?We lost 17 men,? he said. ?I survived to continue my enlistment for five more years.? King believes with every fiber of his being his friend died for a cause. ?He sacrificed his life without anyone knowing what he was doing, crossing the ocean to keep the British from starving. ?In my opinion, Clarence was a hero without recognition. Let?s recognize him,? said King.