Rowland Hoefle lived in Burlington, NJ and was a dedicated father, husband and community leader. He spent his free time working on or around the water, usually sailing on the Delaware River. His only tie to me was through my wife, who he raised as one of his own children due to her own Dad being away with the Army at various posts. When I first met him, I had recently graduated boot camp in Cape May, NJ (USCG) and he was a great ambassador for the state of NJ, as I was definitely a farm boy from Maine. He took to me and my chosen vocation, despite being CG and not part of his beloved Navy.
Rowland's claim to fame, and mission in life in his later years was to instill a remembrance and appreciation of what December 7th 1941 meant to the people who were in Hono that day and to those all over the USA listening with horror over the radio.
He was a Boatswains Mate on the USS Argonne, which was docked across from Ford Island. He was ferrying salvage supplied over to a crippled civilian liner when he was strafed by enemy warplanes.
His full story of that day was covered in a local newspaper a few years back:
Rowland's claim to fame, and mission in life in his later years was to instill a remembrance and appreciation of what December 7th 1941 meant to the people who were in Hono that day and to those all over the USA listening with horror over the radio.
He was a Boatswains Mate on the USS Argonne, which was docked across from Ford Island. He was ferrying salvage supplied over to a crippled civilian liner when he was strafed by enemy warplanes.
His full story of that day was covered in a local newspaper a few years back:
After Pearl, he was assigned to various classes of ships, and developed a love hate relationship with Patrol Craft. He would be a First Class BM on his first PC, the venerable PC-452. This would be his pop-culture claim to fame, as the XO of this vessel would eventually write a tale of this vessel that got made into a Hollywood movie:
Your'e In The Navy Now!
Made in 1951 and starring Gary Cooper, it was a tale of an experimental steam powered PC that defied it's crews efforts at making it work!
I wanted to make at least one model of a ship for Rowland, and in 2012, I got a 1/350 scale Iron Shipwrights kit of a PC 461 class vessel. I built the kit and looked for external differences in the 451 and the normal vessels in the class. There were a few more stack vents and valves, but nothing huge considering the power plant was totally different!
Below are some pictures of my finished model.
Sorry about the glare off the glass, but the case was glued on.
I wish the last known crewman of PC-452 Fair Winds and Following Seas on his crossing of the bar.
Good-Bye Shipmate, I will miss you.
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