Cyril Cline on Submarine Crew on Missing List
Columbus Junction—Word has been received here that Cyril Cline, a former Columbus Junction boy, was missing in action.
Chief Petty Officer Cyril Cline was in the Navy serving on a submarine in the Pacific and had been in the Navy the last seven years.
Information from the government was received by his wife, who lives in San Francisco and by his father, Walter Cline, of Aledo, Ill., who sent word Saturday to Cyril’s uncle, Harry Hanft of Columbus Junction.
Cyril has one brother, Theodore Cline, who is also in the Navy.
Source: Muscatine Journal and News-Tribune, June 8, 1943
Number From Area Included On Missing Lists; Safety of Some Subsequently Reported.
“Missing in action.”
Official notifications from the war and navy departments, bearing this saddening information about a loved one, have come to a number of homes in this area since the Pearl Harbor attack back in the waning days of 1941.
For some relatives, this opening sentence was followed by happier information in the course of time. For others, where no further details have been received, only the hope will come, revealing the safety of a loved one.
For, in a number of cases, some of the men who were reported as missing in action were later reported to have rejoined their combat units, or rescued by comrades. Others, subsequent messages related, were being held prisoners by enemy countries and have communicated with relatives.
Others, about whom their commanders have had no additional information to relate, have, after an interval, been declared officially to have been killed in action.
And, for the parents and relatives of some, the suspense of waiting has continued month after month, as they clung to the hope that no news may be good news and that some day, soon if possible, a message may clear, reporting that the absent member is alive and well.
From official lists issued at intervals, augmented in instances by information obtained from relatives and friends, the following information relative to those from this area who have been reported missing in action was obtained:
Cyril Cline, former Columbus Junction resident, was reported missing in action while serving on a submarine in the South Pacific in word received June 8, by his uncle, Harry Hanft from his wife in San Francisco. His father, Walter Cline, resides at Aledo, Ill.
Source: Muscatine Journal and News-Tribune, December 30, 1943
Cyril Arthur Cline was born Jan. 9, 1919 to Walter Leslie and Ruth Ann Hanft Cline. He died Apr. 3, 1943 and is memorialized at the Courts of the Missing, Court 5, Honolulu Memorial, Honolulu, Hawaii.
Petty Officer Cline served in World War II with the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Pickerel (SS-177) and was MIA/KIA when that ship was sunk, probably by depth charge attack. He was awarded the Purple Heart.
Source: ancestry.com
