Loyce Deene, Machinist Mate--burial at sea

[Jocassee]

Loyce Edward Deen, an Aviation Machinist (Machinist's?) Mate 2nd Class, USNR, was a gunner on a TBM Avenger. On November 5, 1944, Deen's squadron participated in a raid on Manila, where his plane was hit multiple times by anti-aircraft fire while attacking a Japanese cruiser. Deen was killed.
The Avenger's pilot, Lt. Robert Cosgrove, managed to return to his carrier, the USS Essex. Both Deen and the plane had been shot up so badly that it was decided to leave him in the plane.

It is the only time in U.S. Navy history (and probably U.S. military history) that an aviator was buried in his aircraft after being killed in action.

http://loyceedeen.webstarts.com/uploads/GoingHome.mp4

[HeroHog]

Sharing, in total, if you don't mind. Right after I get this cat hair out of my eyes...

[Jocassee]

Sharing, in total, if you don't mind. Right after I get this cat hair out of my eyes...

\

Please do. It came to me on the internet, I don't own it.

[Jocassee]

A more complete writeup is here

http://loyceedeen.webstarts.com/

[lee n. field]

And what came to my mind as the plane went over the edge was

And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.

For those not familiar with it, it's from Revelation 20.  Day of Judgment.

[Brad Johnson]

Wow. Altus, OK, is only about an hour from where I grew up.

Brad

[230RN]

Very moving.  I loved that Victory at Sea program, which was mentioned in the link. I believe I still have a 33-1/3 LP recording of the suite of music from it, one of the few LPs I saved even after several household moves and several advances in recording technology.

Somehow, the concept of burial at sea seems to be especially moving to me because there's no "place" to go to, to pay one's respects.  It's a really, really final goodbye.

Terry

ETA
 Music Suite: https://youtu.be/x3dwsRSA6KE
Commentary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_at_Sea#Music

[Jocassee]

Very moving.  I loved that Victory at Sea program, which was mentioned in the link. I believe I still have a 33-1/3 LP recording of the suite of music from it, one of the few LPs I saved even after several household moves and several advances in recording technology.

Somehow, the concept of burial at sea seems to be especially moving to me because there's no "place" to go to, to pay one's respects.  It's a really, really final goodbye.

Terry

ETA
 Music Suite: https://youtu.be/x3dwsRSA6KE

Ditto on all the above.

Some of my very earliest childhood memories are watching Victory at Sea reruns on PBS and visiting the USS Yorktown.
Commentary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_at_Sea#Music

[230RN]

I didn't realize you could watch individual episodes from the episode links.  Scroll down from the music section.  I'm watching the Guadalcanal episode right now.  Lotsa bangin' and boomin' and bodies falling out of trees and like that there good stuff.  Oooo, and Garands.

[Scout26]

I have the entire series on VHS tapes...

[freakazoid]

A more complete writeup is here

http://loyceedeen.webstarts.com/

I'm going to have to save this to read later.
I while ago I had read The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, I wonder if he was mentioned.

Wow. Altus, OK, is only about an hour from where I grew up.

Brad

My grandpa grew up there. We would have some of our family reunions up in the Quartz Mountain State Park area.

[French G.]

I volunteered for several more conventional burial at sea details. Old retirees get their wish granted by the USN and it is a nice ceremony. Usually no family, just videos. It is an involved process, sometimes months long wait for an available ship. I believe that my barge was popular due to us having a morgue. Bernie the pirate stayed there, higher story.

Caskets would be metal, predrilled with a lot of holesaw holes for sinking and heavily weighted. I assume that the body was bagged, but still an odor. The casket would be borne to the launching device, flags, rendered honors, Chaps saying words, standard military funeral. Not wanting to have foamies visible in the video I skipped hearing protection and was closest to the honor guard. Not having blanks aboard they used line launching charges in the M-14. By the third funeral that day I was dear, my Dixie cup had a fair amount of unburnt powder in it and my whites were pretty beat from lifting and sweating.

Weird atmosphere, outside of the ceremony we weren't somber, nobody knew the people. Chaplain had all kinds of funeral fail stories, not wanting to repeat sinking recalcitrant caskets with the fifty, or going out in the ship's boat to hole them with a fire axe. Similarly, aircrew in another command had no nice things to say about spreading ashes in flight, rotor wash, and the side of a leaky H-3 covered in gearbox oil.

[RoadKingLarry]

My first boat did a burial at sea, scatter the ashes. Retired Chief, WWII Submariner.
XO did the honors, "windward" and "leeward" usually aren't too important to a submarine, but sometimes it is.
CO, XO, "chaplain*", and the lookout all got a face full of "the chief" as he came to be known as the ashes were blown back on the bridge crew and into the bridge and the ventilation system.

[freakazoid]

Not having blanks aboard they used line launching charges in the M-14.

Now that would be one way to have your ashes spread. It can launch a line pretty far.