April 23, 2020
By Vernon Case Gauntt
Editor’s Introduction: Vernon Case Gauntt is a writer and genealogist who occasionally contributes to the GenealogyBank Blog. In today’s genealogy detective story, he hunts down clues to discover who “Duke” was – the mystery friend who appears in photos and letters from his Dad during WWII. (Casey is an accomplished writer. If you enjoy this story, check out his website: Write Me Something Beautiful.)
Casey’s Introduction: I’ve come to realize that so many of us probably have a photo or a document that would be so helpful and meaningful to others, especially those we don’t even know, if we could somehow get it into their hands. Well, we now have tools that can assist us with this. Here’s a story of how I was able to solve the mystery of identifying a man who appeared in a couple of my favorite photos of my father during WWII, figure out why he was important to my Dad, and get this information to “Duke’s” relatives. A woman did something like this for me almost 12 years ago, and it literally changed my life.
I was going through some letters last year that my father wrote during World War II, in preparation of donating them to Chapman University’s U.S. War Letters project. My Dad mentioned someone named “Duke” in a few of those letters. I could tell they were close friends and served together in the Army’s 145th Infantry Division.
One of my favorite photos of my Dad during WWII was taken with Duke sometime in 1943. I seemed to recall his last name was Ellison. My father didn’t have many close adult friends after the war, and I wanted to learn more about Duke: what happened to him during or after the war, and what they did together.
The 145th Infantry Regiment was engaged in intensive training in preparation for fighting the Japanese in the South Pacific. The original of that photo hangs in a large frame in my home office that also features the Legion of Merit and two Bronze Stars that my Dad, Major Grover Cleveland Gauntt Jr., earned for his two years of exemplary service for the U.S. Army in the Solomon Islands and Philippines during World War II. I see Duke’s face every day.
Recently, I got a bug in my ear to try and find out more about Duke. “Duke” was a nickname and that posed a problem for online research. My family members who might have had some information were no longer with us. But I caught a break that opened up many doors and windows.
I surmised from the photo and other snippets of memory lurking in the recesses of my mind that Duke and my Dad were close. As I said, my Dad didn’t have many close adult friends – and perhaps that spiked my curiosity about Duke. Where did he grow up? Was he my Dad’s pal from college, like Jack Fredericks, Frank Gehrie and Hugh Bardeen? What happened to him? Was Duke even his real name?
With abundant thanks and gratitude to my packrat mother, Barbara Case Gauntt, plus the incredible tools now available on online genealogy sites like GenealogyBank.com, and genealogy-military history researcher extraordinaire Patricia Johnson, I was able to stitch together a glimpse into the life of Duke and his friendship with my Dad.
In June of 2019 we donated more than 25 original letters my Dad wrote during WWII to his parents and his bride-to-be, Barbara Case, to Chapman University (in Orange County, California) and their wonderful U.S. War Letters project.
In a letter to his parents dated 20 July 1943, sent from Camp Roberts, Grover writes:
“The ‘Duke’ is leaving. I hate to see him go. We are splitting up, but someday we will get together again, for we have a sound friendship. He is the first to leave. I don’t know anything else.”
Captain Gauntt, the Cannon Company he commanded, and the rest of the 145th Infantry Regiment, shipped out of San Francisco in late December 1943. After a couple of weeks in New Guinea, they moved on to the Japanese-controlled island of Bougainville in the Solomon Islands.
On 24 February 1944, he wrote this in a letter to his folks:
“The Duke received a letter from MJ and he came over to show it to me. He was quite proud of it, and I don’t blame him.”
I found this interesting on a couple of fronts. First, it appeared that Dad and Duke Ellison had reconnected in the South Pacific and were together on Bougainville. Second, I assumed “MJ” was Mary Jane, my father’s nearest older sister. She married Earl M. Daniels II in 1943 and they had recently brought into this crazy world their first child, Susan Lynne Daniels. What MJ may have written to Captain Ellison that he was “quite proud of,” I don’t know. But I viewed this as indicative of Duke’s closeness to Dad and his family.
I suspected Duke was not his real name, and this seriously hampered my search for information. Dead ends everywhere.
Then there was a recent tug…
My oldest grandson, Wyatt James Kirby, is nine and a professional baseball fanatic. Not unlike his Uncle Jimmy, who taught himself to read at the age of 5 so that he could decipher the box scores in the sports sections of the papers and the hundreds of baseball cards he bought and collected, Wyatt has recently started his own baseball card collection. He also has memorized the rosters of all Major League Baseball teams… as I said, he’s obsessed.
Wyatt showed me his bulging book of baseball cards and I told him about Jimmy’s mammoth collection, and that those cards are stored in our attic – might he have any interest? Wyatt said “maybe,” especially the top “old” players. I appreciate we might have a different interpretation of who is an “old” player, but I promised to dive into the Jimmy archives.
The following Saturday I pulled down the extension ladder that beckoned my creaky knees and hips to our attic. “Attic” might be misleading. It’s more like a 3rd story, half of which was wood paneled and sound-proofed to serve as my recording studio back in the 1980s and 1990s. I pulled out the six banker boxes full of Jimmy’s baseball cards and lined them up at the top of the stairs.
I then looked at the pile of stuff on the desk where Jimmy used to write when he was home for a visit from Los Angeles. There was a stack of letters, photos and newspaper articles. I was a bit surprised by the volume. I’d been through the pile perhaps a year ago. I thought I’d whittled it down…
One of the first things I came upon was a clipping from a Los Angeles Times article in March of 1946 announcing the wedding of my father and mother. It listed the full names of the wedding party including the groomsmen: Jack Fredericks was best man; my three uncles, Stu Hagestad, Earl Daniels and Stan Case (16); Burton Smith; Theodore Tyler; and… Kermit Ellison!
Duke’s real name was Kermit! And he was at Dad’s wedding! This was a huge find.
I searched his real name online and struck a vein of valuable information. Ms. Johnson uncovered even more. The pieces of the story began to fall into place!
Kermit Warwick Ellison was born 23 November 1917 in Kinde, Huron County, Michigan, to Warwick Henry Ellison and Anne Stoner.
He graduated from Kinde High School and in 1937 enrolled in Michigan State College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences [now known as Michigan State University] in East Lansing, where he was a member of Lamda Chi Alpha fraternity.
Duke registered for service in the fall of 1940 and, upon graduation from Michigan State, entered active duty in the Army in July 1941. After basic training and officer candidate school, Duke was attached to that segment of the 145th Infantry Regiment training in Camp Roberts in central California. That is where Duke and my father met and became friends.
As Grover wrote in the letter to his folks, Duke left Camp Roberts in July. First Lt. Ellison was attached to Company I of the 306th Infantry Regiment, 77th Infantry Division. He and his unit shipped out for the South Pacific in August.
Their first fight against the Japanese was on New Guinea. Lt. Ellison and the 306th were then attached to the 37th Infantry Division, also known as the “Buckeye Division” given its roots in Ohio, under command of Major General Robert Sprague Beightler. They landed on Bougainville, the largest of the Solomon Islands, in December of 1943.
As mentioned, Captain Gauntt and his men arrived on Bougainville at the end of January 1944, and reconnected with his good buddy Duke. As described in my father’s story, there were some horrific battles on Bougainville in March and April, including the Battles for Hills 206 and 700.
Duke and my Dad were both awarded Bronze Stars for heroic and meritorious service on Bougainville.
In January of 1945, Duke, Grover and their units boarded ships bound for the Philippines and the attack on Manila. They spent the next eight months in heavy fighting across Luzon, culminating in the unconditional surrender of the few surviving Japanese officers and soldiers on September 2.
Duke’s and Grover’s war was over. They had both been promoted to the rank of Major and awarded and acknowledged for their leadership and bravery.
Tomorrow, in Part II, the story continues with their post-war years.
