World War: Reuben James to Davy Jones

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Walter and the others on Rube had been plenty sore when people claimed there never was any such hero as Reuben James. That was when they named destroyer 607 (laid down at San Francisco last July) Daniel Frazier. Some scholar had dug into the books and found that the Rube James yarn was a phony; that the name of the hero who saved Stephen Decatur was really Daniel Frazier, and that was why the Department called 607 the Daniel Frazier. The boys on Rube refused to believe it.

Nowadays life in the Navy wasn't so hot. No furloughs, too much worry and always the chance of getting what the Kearny got, or worse. No chance to save money because he sent all he could to his three brothers and three sisters. ("Say," he had written, "you kids spend a hell of a lot of money. You better start saving some of that money in the bank if you have any left.") Not much prospect of marrying. ("I hope it's Lee if we are still going together when I get out of the Navy.") Not much chance of getting out of the Navy—certainly not while Rube was putting her nose into cold waves somewhere west of Iceland. . . .

Somewhere west of Iceland the Reuben James was sunk. The Navy merely said ". . . by a torpedo during the night. . . ." Walter Sorensen was aboard when the torpedo hit. Rube had none of the Kearny's fancy compartmentation; she just holed and sank, and Walter Sorensen went into the sea with her.

At 5424 South 55th Street, Omaha, early this week, Walter Sorensen's sister Anna still did not know for sure whether Walter was dead. She only knew what she read in the papers: of 142 men aboard, 45 men had been saved, eight of them injured. One body was recovered. One man died after being rescued. The Navy Department had "little hope" for the seven officers and 88 men who were unaccounted for.

Among the 88 was Walter Sorensen. When a reporter asked Anna how she felt, she said a casual mouthful about one American boy who risked a lot for 62 bucks a month.

"Oh, I wouldn't know. It was his duty. He did what they told him to do."