"It was the last day of October when they saved the forty-four,
  from those dark, icy waters off the cold New England Shore."

The USS Reuben James was the first US Navy ship sunk in WWII -- actually five weeks before Pearl Harbor, topedoed by a German U-Boat while on convoy duty.  Woody Guthrie was so taken by the sacrifice of the 100 men who went down, that he borrowed the tune of the old bluegrass favorite "Wildwood Flower", and wrote the story in half a dozen verses.  It is a reminder to all of us that ordinary folks like you and me might be called upon to rise to greater heights at any moment.  In the immortal words of Gen. John C. Breckinridge, CSA, speaking to the assembled corps of VMI cadets in New Market, VA that fateful May Saturday in 1864, "I know that if I have to call upon you, you will do your duty."

Another U-Boat story closer to us Virginians, is the U-235.  It was the first U-Boat sunk off the coast of North Carolina, in April 1942, barely six months after the Reuben James went down.  All the crew was killed, and the about two dozen bodies which were recovered, were brought to the Norfolk Naval Base, identified, then buried with full German Military Honors at the Hampton National Cemetery.  Each November on "Rememberence Day" (14th I think), the German Embassy conducts a ceremony there.  Those readers close enough to go might take in this little known chapter of WWII.  Last summer up in New England, I met the German Officer who is attending the U.S. Naval War College, and has been apponted by the German Embassy to represent the German Navy at the ceremony this year.  I forget his name, but if you go, ask him if he remembers that clown from Virginia who at a party in Boothbay Harbor, picked a strange looking instrument, and led the assembled group in the singing of "The Sinking of the Reuben James."

Randy Cabell

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