And now, the rest of the story...

After yesterday's post with the newspaper story from 1943 about my grandfather's service in the Merchant Marine during World War II, when a Nazi submarine torpedoed and sank his ship in the Atlantic, I happened to be on the phone with my Dad.  I'd heard the story before with a few different details and one notable addendum.  My father had also heard some slightly different details -- our recollection of the tale as told by my my grandfather is that he actually broke both arms when the torpedo struck his boat --  and had more detail on the notable addendum.  Others who have heard the tale are invited to send me corrections or additions, so that we get things as right as we can.

And with that, let me summon my best Paul Harvey voice to tell you all The Rest of the Story....


Merchant Marine Midshipman John M. Magee from Chestertown, New York, had survived the sinking of his ship in the Atlantic in January 1943.  He and his shipmates had been set adrift after questioning by the same Nazi submarine that torpedoed them.  They were rescued by a destroyer belonging to a neutral country, and seemed likely to spend the duration of the war interned in a neutral port.

But Midshipman Magee smuggled himself onto an allied destroyer and after serving with the gun crew as that ship fought in several battles, he finally returned to Allied soil when the ship put into to Ireland.  But what next? Although he had reported in to the Red Cross, he was still a long way from returning home or to to active duty, a process that could take months and months while the war waged on.

Then as he went through Red Cross processing, one of the clerks suggested that he might be able to speed his way back to America and back to duty if only he had a little clout or some strings he could pull. Was there, perhaps, a general or admiral who could speak up for him? Perhaps somebody in the American War Department?

Midshipman Magee thought it over and had to admit that, no, he didn't have any strings to pull in the War Department.

"How about the State Department?" asked the clerk, suggesting perhaps the final option.

And then, Midshipman Magee paused and thought.  After a moment he came up with a name and said that, yes, there was one fellow from the State Department that he'd met before, though it had been a couple of years.  You see, his father Dr. John Magee used to spend some time at the thoroughbred racetrack down in Saratoga, New York, during the August meet. And there was this fellow from Kentucky, a nice older gentleman who worked for the State Department, who enjoyed the races, too.  In fact, his father and the gentleman from Kentucky had often dined together back in the days before the war.

And so Midshipman Magee offered up the name of the gentleman from Kentucky, in hopes that the gentleman might be able to help him get home.  And a telegraph was queued up and eventually dispatched to Washington, D.C.:

MIDSHIPMAN JOHN M. MAGEE IN DUBLIN. STOP. WANTS TO GET TO USA. STOP. PLEASE ADVISE.

And eventually a telegraph returned from Washington, D.C.:

MUST BE MISTAKE. STOP. MIDSHIPMAN MAGEE KIA WHEN SHIP LOST AT SEA MONTHS AGO. STOP.

For although he had passed through a neutral country and finally made it back to Allied territory, word of Midshipman Magee's rescue had not yet made it back to America.

A few more telegraphs crossed the Atlantic, and orders came down to put Midshipman Magee on the first and fastest transport back to America, the Queen Mary shipping out of Scotland.  And less than two weeks later Midshipman Magee was indeed steaming into New York Harbor.  Those orders returning Midshipman Magee back to the United States of America were followed immediately and without question because they bore the name of the older gentleman from Kentucky, the name Cordell Hull.

That would be Secretary of State Cordell Hull, the longest-serving Secretary of State in American history. The Cordell Hull who had already directed American foreign policy for ten years, and would in two more years be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for establishing the United Nations.

Cordell Hull had many good days in office, but I like to think that his best day was the day he discovered that the son of a friend, that my grandfather, had not been swallowed by war and sea and helped return him to the United States safe and sound.

And now you know ... the rest of the story.

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At least, that's the story the way I heard it, and I'm sticking with it!