ARCOLA — On Dec. 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a surprise attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Territory of Hawaii.
On board the battleship USS West Virginia, which was damaged in the attack, were brothers Harry and Charles Brown of Arcola. Harry survived, but Charles was killed, and his remains were considered to be unrecoverable.
In March 2021, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced that the remains of Electrician’s Mate 3rd Class (EM3c) Charles Brown had been identified.
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Charles Darling Brown was son of James Allison “Al” Brown and Lillie Wellbaum Brown of rural Arcola.
The Brown family history in America stretches back eight generations to Lt. Richard Browne, who came to the American colonies from Maidstone, Kent, England around 1650 and settled in Southold, Long Island, New York, where he served with the Suffolk County Militia.
Seven generations later, Al Brown’s father, Charles Dammeran Brown, was born to Mahala Brown in Jackson County, Ohio in 1842.
In March 1868, Charles Dammeran Brown married Philoma Darling of Jackson County, Ohio, and in 1871, Charles and Philoma moved their growing family, including their newborn son, James Allison “Al” Brown, to Douglas County, Illinois, where Charles purchased 35 acres of farmland two miles southwest of Arcola and began farming.
On Nov. 3, 1894, at the age of 23, Al Brown married Lillie Wellbaum in Arthur. Lillie, born in 1874, was the daughter of Richard “Uncle Dick” Wellbaum and Olivia Strader Wellbaum of Greenup.
Al and Lillie Brown purchased 40 acres of land about a half mile due south of Al’s father’s farm near a bend in the Kaskaskia River. The land was bordered on the south by the Douglas/Coles County line.
It was there that Al and Lillie Brown’s 13 children were born: Allie May (1895), Cleta Flo (1896), Leland Elmer (1898), Freda Philoma (1900), Fred Herschel (1901), Gladys Olive (1904), Ruby Opal (1906), Ada Charlotte (1909), Lois Pearl (1911), Juanita A. (1914), Harry Verde (1916), Charles Darling (1919), and Sylvia Alberta (1921).
Charles Darling Brown was born at 12:20 p.m. on the family farm on May 4, 1919, with Arcola physician Dr. George H. Moser in attendance. Charles was the 12th child and the youngest boy born to Al and Lillie Brown.
As was common in large working families at the time, the older children helped keep an eye on Charles. The family affectionately referred to Charles by the nickname “Chi.”
In an interview with Eloise Elder Quinley, the daughter of Charles’ sister Ada, she said that when Charles was born her grandmother, Lillie Brown, told her mother that Charles was hers to look after. It was a responsibility Ada took very seriously and they became very close.
Another niece, Alyson Wright Davis, the daughter of Charles’ younger sister Sylvia Brown Wright, said Charles “was the baby, he was the baby boy,” and he always had people watching over him.
Alyson also recalled that all of Charles’ siblings were witty, and she often wondered if Charles had a great sense of humor, as well.
The Brown children were educated in rural country schools, the standard form of education for most children in America in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Most children had to walk to school at that time, and schoolhouses were built wherever there were enough children to warrant a school and to keep the distance to within just a few miles.
Charles Brown received an 8th grade education, a normal education for the time, at a rural school called Columbia located about 1.25 miles west of the Brown farm just across the county line in Coles County.
His teacher was a young woman named Opal Lundy. When Charles later enlisted in the Navy, he listed Lundy as a character reference.
According to Alyson Davis, once the Brown children completed 8th grade they went to work on the family farm. The Brown siblings came of age in the years leading up to and during the Great Depression, and everyone was expected to pitch in during those difficult times.
Life on the family farm was hard, there was always work to be done and chores to be completed. Seasonal farm laborers had to be organized and there were seemingly never-ending meals to prepare.
Sylvia Wright told her daughter, Alyson, that they would no sooner finish cooking, eating, and cleaning up breakfast and they would have to begin making lunch to keep everyone fed on time.
At the age of 19, Charles decided to join the Navy, maybe as a way to escape a difficult life on the farm or possibly as a way to see the world.
In Dec. 1937, he reported to the Navy Recruitment Station located at the Mattoon Post Office at 1701 Charleston Avenue in Mattoon to start the application process. He returned on Jan. 10, 1938 for his physical.
Charles was accompanied by his father, who was asked to sign a form saying he would not at any time request his son’s discharge from the Navy.
On May 13, 1938, Charles reported to the Navy Recruiting Station in St. Louis, where he was formally enlisted for four full years as an apprentice seaman (AS).
His enlistment papers describe him as 19 years and 0 months old with a ruddy complexion, light brown hair, and blue eyes. He was 5 feet, 7 Âľ inches tall and 125 pounds.
Eloise Quinley and Alyson Davis both remember the family story that when Charles decided he wanted to join the Navy, his father encouraged his son Harry to go with Charles to keep an eye on him. And so, on May 13, 1938, Harry Brown also enlisted in the Navy.
AS Charles Darling Brown and AS Harry Brown reported for boot camp at San Diego on May 16, 1938, and on Aug. 28, they were both assigned to the USS West Virginia.
Charles earned several promotions, seaman second class, fireman third class, fireman second class, fireman first class, and advanced to electrician's mate third class on Aug. 16, 1940.
Records show Charles Brown satisfactorily completed all of the requirements for another advancement. On Nov. 26, 1941, he officially requested an advancement in rating from EM3c to machinist's mate second class (MM2c), saying this more closely matched the work he had been doing.
That same day, USS West Virginia Commander Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter endorsed the advancement and forwarded the request to the Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, Rear Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, with a notation that he recommended the advancement be approved.
On the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, EM3c Charles Brown and MM2c Harry Brown were both aboard the West Virginia, which was docked on the south channel side of Ford Island at Pearl Harbor, when the Japanese Navy executed a surprise attack on the ships moored in the harbor and the air stations on Oahu.
Within minutes, the West Virginia had taken two torpedo hits on her port side and the ship was beginning to list as a third explosion shook the vessel. The ship was moored outboard of the USS Tennessee at platform F6 off Ford Island, leaving her port side an open target for the Japanese torpedoes.
The West Virginia was also reeling from the massive explosion of the USS Arizona which was moored astern (behind) the Tennessee and was hit on the forward deck by a 1,760-pound bomb, setting off ammunition in the ship’s forward magazine below.
The explosion caused burning chunks of steel to shoot onto the West Virginia and Tennessee. The ships were surrounded by a raging fire burning in the oil leaking into the water from the stricken vessels.
The West Virginia was hit by at least seven torpedoes and two bombs. Aware that the ship was sinking, the damage control officer, 1st Lt. John S. Harper, aided by Lt. Claude V. Ricketts, quickly began counter-flooding measures to prevent the ship from capsizing.
Although the water in the harbor was only 40 feet deep, the crew’s chance of survival depended on the ship remaining upright. (The nearby USS Oklahoma capsized, killing 429 of her crew.)
As the crew struggled to contain the fires on their ship, the ship began to sink with some of her crew trapped below, including Charles Brown. The crew valiantly manned guns and worked to extinguish fires, but the ship was sinking at her berth and the fires were out of control.
Torpedo explosions had caused severe damage in the midship region, an explosion had caused extensive damage to the main deck, a fire had burned the foremast and bridge, the steering engine room was wrecked, and the rudder was lying on the bottom of the channel.
As it became clear the battle to save the West Virginia was futile, the order was given to abandon ship. The West Virginia came to rest on the muddy bottom of the harbor, flooded up to the main deck, and the fires continued to burn for 30 hours.
It is not known exactly what happened to Charles Brown that morning. Harry was topside while Charles was still below decks getting dressed when the attack began. Harry was injured, but survived and Charles was missing.
About a week later, Al Brown received a telegram from the office of Rear Admiral Nimitz informing him “that your son, Charles Darling Brown, electrician's mate third class, U.S. Navy, was lost in action in the performance of his duty and in the service of his country.”
Less than a week later, Al Brown received a second telegram dated Dec. 19, 1941, from Rear Admiral Randall Jacobs, the new Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, informing him that “later reports indicate your son Charles Darling Brown, electrician's mate third class, USN, previously reported lost is now reported as a survivor.” (Jacobs replaced Chester Nimitz when Nimitz was named commander-in-chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet on Dec. 17.)
Eloise Quinley said the family was distraught when they received the telegram saying Charles had been killed, then elated to receive the second telegram saying it was a mistake and he had survived. With that bit of good news, the Brown family enjoyed a happy Christmas.
Harry Brown was hospitalized for about a week due to his injuries and post-traumatic stress, and then sent stateside to recover. For two months the Brown family waited for some word from Charles.
Unable to wait any longer, Al Brown asked P.A. Lindenmeyer, co-owner and publisher of the Arcola Record-Herald, to inquire about his son. On Feb. 20, 1942, Lindenmeyer sent a letter to Rear Admiral Jacobs asking about the fate of Charles Darling Brown.
On Feb. 26, 1942, Charles’ sister Allie Brown Floyd wrote a letter to the Information Bureau asking about her brother.
Al and Lillie Brown finally received word in the form of a letter from Rear Admiral Jacobs dated Feb. 27, 1942, in which he stated that the Navy Department had been making every effort to locate their son. Jacobs offered an explanation for the second telegram, which had mistakenly stated their son was a survivor.
In the chaos after the attack, the injured were transported by any means possible to many different locations and it had taken time to account for them. Until then, the Navy Department had not been able to accurately account for the injured or the dead.
Jacobs went on to say that with the time that had elapsed with no word from Charles, the possibility of his “being alive has been entirely abandoned” and that “the secretary of the navy, after considering all of the circumstances surrounding his disappearance, has been reluctantly forced to hold that your son met his death on Dec. 7, 1941, in that disaster.”
Eloise Quinley and Alyson Davis said their mothers didn’t talk much about what happened to their brother Charles, their generation tended to be stoic, but it was clear it hit them hard. The loss of Charles had devastated the Brown family.
One hundred and six enlisted men and two officers from the West Virginia were lost at Pearl Harbor. Some were killed in the explosions, some were lost to the fire, and others were lost below decks when the West Virginia sank.
The sailors who died on the West Virginia were buried in the Halawa Naval Cemetery and Nuuanu Cemetery on Oahu. Only 36 had been identified.
In 1947, the bodies were disinterred, and another attempt was made to identify the unknowns, with 43 identifications made. Those not identified were considered unrecoverable and reinterred. The remains of Charles Darling Brown were unrecovered.
The Brown family placed a stone in the Arcola Township Cemetery in memory of their beloved Charles Darling Brown, who was “Lost at Pearl Harbor.”
Epilogue
On Aug. 21, 1941, Charles wrote a letter to his nieces back home in Arcola, teasing them about how many “fellers” they had. He told them he had one girl but didn’t know where she was anymore. Charles was just 22 years old when he died. He never married. He didn’t have the chance.
On Dec. 15, 1941, Rear Admiral Nimitz approved the advancement in rating earned by EM3c Charles Brown to machinist's mate second class, but the advancement was never recognized. Two recent attempts were made to have this advancement recognized by the Navy, but were denied.
With advanced tools and DNA testing, DPAA is working to identify all unknown remains. In March 2021, DPAA announced it had identified the remains of EM3c Charles Darling Brown of Arcola.
Charles Darling Brown is finally coming home and will be buried near his parents in the Arcola Township Cemetery at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 20. There is a deep sense of relief among remaining family members that Charles will finally rest alongside his loving family.
On May 17, 1942, the West Virginia was raised from the waters of Pearl Harbor and moved into drydock as the first step in efforts to repair the ship.
In July 1944, after two and half years of extensive and permanent repairs and modernization, the West Virginia was once again at sea. She participated in the largest naval battle of World War II at Leyte and supported landings at Mindoro, Luzon, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa.
On Sept. 2, 1945, as representatives of the Japanese government and Allied forces gathered on the deck of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay to sign the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, the West Virginia and her crew sat watching in the harbor, a reminder of the resolve and determination Japan had ignited at Pearl Harbor and a defiant tribute to those who were lost.