Navy father and oldest son’s Good Conduct Medals. Four Navy sons went off to World War II. Two came home.

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Benjamin Franklin Lindsley was born at Hartford, CT in 1882, the son of a machinist, Herbert Lindsley and his wife, Dorothy.  In 1900, he was working as a druggist’s clerk and living at home with his parents and older siblings,  Edgar and Nina.   Ben joined the Navy at 21 on 27 January 1904.  In 1910, he was a sailor at the Portsmouth (VA) Navy Yard.  When he reenlisted, he was given Continuous Service Contract # 22345 as he worked his way up the pharmacist’s mate rating.  He earned his first Good Conduct Medal at the expiration of his third enlistment on 4 February 1912 on the battleship USS Delaware.    He earned his first Good Conduct Bar at the end of his next enlistment on 4 February 1916 on the gunboat, USS Nashville.  Nashville participated in the United States occupation of Veracruz, proclaimed in April 1914 by United States President Woodrow Wilson, against the Mexican government of Victoriano Huerta.  Lindsley probably earned a Mexican campaign medal, whereabouts unknown.   He married a Navy nurse and Pennsylvania native, Anna Naughton, at New Orleans on February 11, 1916. 

 

Their two oldest boys, Benjamin Francis (b. 1918) and John Herbert (b. 1919) were born at the Canacao Naval Hospital in the Philippines where their father was stationed, before returning to the United States and assignment to the Great Lakes Naval Training Station shortly after John’s birth.  The family settled in nearby Waukegan, Illinois, the hometown of Benjamin Kubelsky, a young violinist and vaudevillian, who had changed his name to Ben K. Benny.  Ben joined the Navy in 1917 during World War I and he frequently entertained other sailors with his violin.  One night he had a particularly “tough crowd” and prompted by fellow sailor and actor, Pat O’Brien, Benny did an impromptu standup routine that left the other “Jack tars” laughing.  Shortly after the war, Benny put together a solo routine and promoted it as, "Ben K. Benny: Fiddle Funology." When another "patter-and-fiddle" performer, Ben Bennie, got wind of it, the claim for the name was on.  So, Ben from Waukegan took the sailor's nickname “Jack.”  By 1921, the fiddle was reduced to a  prop, and Jack Benny was well on his way to becoming one of Hollywood’s most beloved comedians.

 

During World War I, Ben Lindsley had been temporarily appointed a warrant officer pharmacist.  After the war, he reverted back to his permanent rate of chief pharmacist’s mate.   He received his second and last Good Conduct Bar on 31 December 1921 from his last duty station, the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, and retired with nearly 17 years active duty.  In Waukegan, the Lindsley family was laying down roots and growing with the addition of two more boys, Edgar Joseph (b. 1921) and James David (b. 1925).   A daughter, Anita Victoria, died as an infant in 1923.   They lived at 1525 Lloyd Ave.,  seven-tenths of a mile from 11 S. St. James St., the childhood home of Waukegan native and future science fiction author, Ray Bradbury (b. 1920).  The Bradbury family lived in Tucson, Arizona, during 1926–1927 and 1932–1933 while their father pursued employment, each time returning to Waukegan, before they moved to Los Angeles in 1934.

Following his retirement from the Navy, Ben Lindsley went to work at the Pfanstiehl Radio Company plant in Waukegan where he worked as an assembler.   He listed that in the 1930 Census for his occupation, but also checked off the box that he was unemployed, an awful plight he shared along with millions of other American “bread winners”.   With a wife and four growing boys to support, times were tough for him.  The author Thoreau wrote, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things."

 

Who knows what desperation Ben Lindsley was going through?  A serious illness, financial distress, or something else.   Tragically, he took his own life in 1935 by poison.  He was 52 and left behind his wife and four sons, 17, 15, 14 and 10.   His family had a handsome gravestone with the inscription “Pharmacist USN” laid on his grave.  Anna Lindsley returned to nursing to support her family, as her boys began graduating from Waukegan High School.  

 

Edgar, the third oldest, was the first to join the Navy, when he enlisted at Chicago on 11 October 1939.  Per the 1940 Census, 51-year-old Anna was working as a registered nurse for the WPA, 21-year-old Ben was working as an assembler at an auto plant, 20-year-old John was listed as "new worker" and 14-year-old Jim was a high school freshman.  By the end of January 1941, the two older boys had also enlisted in the Navy at Chicago:  Ben on 13 December 1940 and John on January 20, 1941. Each trained at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, a few miles from their home in Waukegan, and where their father had been stationed twice, in the mid-teens and after World War I.     

 

With all four Lindsley brothers enlisting in the Navy, and three choosing to become pharmacist’s mates like their father, it seems they wanted to honor his memory rather than resenting him for leaving them.     

 

John was attached to the battleship USS Oklahoma on 3 September 1941.   He was a fireman third class when he was killed in action just two months later during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.   His remains and most of the other 429 Oklahoma casualties remained unidentified for 75 years.  Edgar was a chief pharmacist’s mate on the destroyer USS Hyman when he was killed in action on April 6, 1945 during the last Naval campaign of the war, Okinawa, and on a brutal day when Hyman’s gunners splashed four Japanese “suicide planes” before the fifth hit their ship, killing 12 men and wounding 40.  Edgar was killed three days before his mother’s 57th birthday and was buried at sea.

 

The oldest son, Ben, was first attached to the USS Reina Mercedes, the 19th century “prize ship” taken from Spain during the Spanish American War and station ship at Annapolis during World War II.  He transferred to YMS 364, a 50-man motor mine sweeper in August 1943. Sometime between January and 5 May 1944 when he transferred to the destroyer USS Trippe, he was promoted to chief pharmacist’s mate.   Between July and October, the destroyer made two round-trips between the United States and southern Italy escorting convoys to and from that campaign. Assigned to the Pacific Fleet in 1945, Trippe arrived at Pearl Harbor on 16 May 1945.  In mid-June, the destroyer escorted convoys between islands in the Central Pacific, including Iwo Jima, Saipan and Okinawa.   Ben was awarded the Navy Good Conduct Medal in 1943.  He went on to serve during the Korean conflict.

 

The youngest son, Jim, was a pharmacist’s mate second class, but was not sent overseas due to the combat deaths of his two brothers.  Anna died in 1955 and is buried next to her husband with her matching gravestone inscribed “Navy Nurse”.  According to their children, the two surviving brothers became estranged and never spoke about the two brothers they lost. James died in 1979 at 53, Ben died in 1998 at 80.

 

In 2016, through DNA analysis using cells from a nephew, John’s remains were identified after 75 years.  C-SPAN filmed the burial at Arlington with full honors.  This post is made in grateful memory of one all-Navy family that sacrificed greatly for this country during both World Wars.

 

https://www.c-span.org/video/?417263-1/pearl-harbor-casualty-burial

 

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[kcmo]

The two that didn't come home.  RIP

[flytiger]

Wonderful story of sacrifice. R.I.P. Brave Sailors.

[katieony]

What a story of family service and sacrifice!

 

Mike

[Kurt Barickman]

That’s a really interesting story and medal group. Thanks for your posting.

Kurt

[KASTAUFFER]

That is an amazing group, The USS Oklahoma identification project was  pet project of my Father In Law. I was in Hawaii to witness the dis-internment of some of the graves before they were identified.

 

Kurt

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Thank you, Kurt.  I'm glad that the Purple Hearts of the two brothers who didn't come home are in good hands with Kcmo, and that he decided to post them.  That made my day seeing those two PHs that I wasn't expecting.   Apparently at one time all the medals and the father's early WWI dog tag with thumbprint were offered for sale on multiple sites, then broken up for sale.   Here is the father's dog tag showing the date he first enlisted in 1904 and his birth date in 1882.  The purchaser of the dog tag is unknown.     A salute to your late father in law who served on USS Honolulu and was involved in the USS Oklahoma identification project.  I recall reading that he passed away sometime ago, but good that he saw the success of that worthy project.  I plan to purchase the father's service file whenever NARA opens up again to researchers, as I'd like to see if he was on a Great White Fleet battleship and any pre-WWI campaign medals he might have earned.