Yeoman's Work

“All hands -- our flag is going up on Mt. Suribachi,” announced the Beachmaster on Iwo Jima, February 23, 1945.  Yeoman 2^ND Class Delmas Bearden was just offshore, aboard the USS Stokes.  “It was noisy aboard ship, we didn’t hear the announcement at all, I just looked up at the right time!”

As a WW II history buff, and a friend of Bearden for many years, it was a surprise to hear about this at such a late date.

Nomenclature-wise, I asked for your behalf – A Navy Yeoman of Bearden’s era typed, filed and kept records.  Today, they compute and understand Excel.   

Bearden may set the modesty bar among WW II combat veterans, while his lack of modesty pertaining to Duke University is another issue.

As for the iconic flag-raising, Bearden issued a classic understatement, “Yeah, seeing that flag go up was pretty special”.

Bearden mentioned the Stokes was built in Wilmington, NC.  He did not mention her namesake was Stokes County, NC.  Nor did he mention Ken Brown, a Sandy Ridge researcher who has compiled an incredible base of information about the ship, including contact with seven crew members.  (Brown passed away in 2014) 

It would have made Brown’s day to learn the eighth is less than an hour away.

CROSSING THE EQUATOR ABOARD USS STOKES

“In the ninth grade, I talked my parents into giving their permission for me to join the Navy.”  Miscalculations of Bearden’s birth year are sizeable and beyond the scope of this writing. 

As for choosing the navy, “I didn’t want to fight on land!”

Bearden probably rethought that in June, 1944.  His ship, the USS Tide, struck a mine, exploding with such force that the 890-ton ship was lifted five feet out of the water.

Ironically, the Tide was a mine sweeper.  She cleared Normandy waters for two days before and during the invasion.  Unfortunately, the Germans laid new mines faster than the Tide could sweep.

“I came off the night shift, but decided to sleep in my office up on the bridge rather than go below deck to my bunk.”  Not without peril, but that was a wise decision. 

The Tide’s commanding officer was killed by the blast and the executive officer took command.  He reported, “The explosion broke the ship’s back, tore a tremendous hole in her bottom, and destroyed all bulkheads below the waterline.  I went up to the bridge and found that everyone there had been killed or wounded.”

Rejoining Bearden, “I don’t know how, but I wound up on a hospital ship, recuperating later in a hospital in Scotland.  With only a broken collar bone, I followed doctors around and made notes for them.  I returned home for convalescent leave on the Queen Mary.”

Not unexpectedly, other Tide shipmates remember their stay on Normandy hospital ships differently, “We remained in the area forty-eight hours while the invasion unfolded – we were bombed by airplanes, struck a mine, and took enemy fire from the beach!”

Both time and the golfer’s code prohibit explaining how Bearden won a purple heart during the D-Day Invasion at Normandy in June, 1944, and participated in D-Day at Iwo Jima in February, 1945 – at only eighteen.

There is more.  We shouldn’t overlook the bookends of Bearden’s navy career. 

His first year at sea was aboard a tanker, the USS Kennebec.  “We transported oil between Texas and New York.”  At war’s end, Bearden was on his fourth ship, a gunboat preparing for the invasion and occupation of Japan. 

After the war, Bearden finished high school, took Lois as his wife, and a Savannah, Georgia job in the building products industry as a livelihood.  Forty-nine years later he retired from Carolina Builders in Greensboro, North Carolina.  “No, it wasn’t that I really loved the building trade, but it helped with food for the family and college for our two sons.”

Lois died after fifty-nine years of marriage.  They were members of Greensboro’s First Baptist Church, where he served as a deacon.  They have four grandchildren.

As for Bearden’s demonstrative devotion to Duke, “One of our sons graduated from Duke – we’re Duke poor, but Duke proud.” 

Bearden’s extraordinary spectrum of naval service is as easy to recap as it is difficult to believe – enlisted at fifteen, seaborne at sixteen, Normandy invasion at seventeen, Iwo Jima landing at eighteen, and discharged at nineteen! 

There is no doubt -- his generation is the greatest. 

DELMAS BEARDEN GETS HUGE WELCOME AFTER
RETURN FROM D-DAY MEMORIAL 06JUN2014

BEARDEN LIVES IN BURLINGTON, NC WITH HIS SON, BOB