News From Carbon
Joe Strain of the U. S. Navy and his wife and two children of Creston visited from Friday evening until Sunday with relatives here. They were guests of Mrs. Dale McKinley Saturday and Sunday.
Source: Adams County Free Press, Corning, Iowa, Thursday, February 24, 1944, Page 10
News From Carbon
A daughter was born Monday, Feb. 25, to Mr. and Mrs. Joe Strain at the Creston hospital.
Source: Adams County Free Press, Corning, Iowa, Thursday, March 02, 1944, Page 9
News About Adams County
Men and Women in the Service
ABOARD THE USS INDIANAPOLIS SOMEWHERE IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC (Delayed) – Recent exploits of the Indianapolis as a member of the potent Pacific Fleet in attacks on Tokyo, Iwo Jima and Okinawa helped erase memories of the desperate delaying actions of three years ago. She was in on February air strikes by carrier planes against Tokyo and hasn’t missed an important Western Pacific assault since the. Her gunners shot down six enemy planes at Okinawa and contributed to the pre-invasion bombardment of both Okinawa and Iwo Jima. In March she was part of the carrier task force that rained destruction on Kyusha and Honshu in the Japanese heartland. From the war’s early days she has fought the Japs – in the Aleutians, in operations leading to occupation of the Gilbert Islands, in the Tarawa invasion, the seizure of the Marshalls, Eniweick and Kwajalein, and in the Marianas Campaign.
She helped blast the Japs at Saipan, Guam and Tinian and was the first large American combatant vessel to anchor in Apra Harbor at Guam since the war began. During her actions against the Japs, the Indianapolis had downed nine enemy planes and sunk one transport.
Source: Adams County Free Press, Corning, Iowa, Thursday, June 14, 1945, Page 6
JAPAN SURRENDERS; WAR ENDS!
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MISSING
The joy and gladness of V-J Day was dampened for relatives and friends of two Adams county service men, who are reported missing. The word came Monday. Joe Strain, son of Robert Strain of Nodaway, and Harley Figgins, son of Herman Figgins of Carbon, were reported missing in action in the Pacific. Mrs. Strain and two children reside in Carbon. Both boys were serving on the U. S. S. Indianapolis, recently lost in battle with the Japs.
Source: Adams County Free Press, Corning, Iowa, Thursday, August 16, 1945, Page 1
News From Nodaway
Nodaway folks were very sorry when the word came that Joe Strain, son of Robert Strain was reported missing in action.
Source: Adams County Free Press, Corning, Iowa, Thursday, August 23, 1945, Page 18
Local New Briefs
Mrs. Virginia Strain of Carbon, has received official announcement from the War Department that her husband, S. 2/c Joseph Mason Strain, was lost at sea in the early morning hours of July 30, 1945. Stain was at first reported missing. He was serving on the U.S.S. Indianapolis, enroute to the Philippines from Guam when two heavy underwater explosions occurred on the starboard side of the ship. Time and space will not this week permit us to give the full letter Mrs. Strain received from Chas. B. McVay, captain of the Indianapolis, giving details of the incident. This will be used next week. Strains death brings to 48 the number of Adam County men dead in World War II.
Source: Adams County Free Press, Corning, Iowa, Thursday, November 01, 1945, Page 1
Captain of Indianapolis Writes to Mrs. Strain
Last week the Free Press gave the information that the War Department had officially announced the death of Joseph Mason Strain, seaman second class, who had previously been reported missing. Mrs. Strain received a letter from Chas B. McVay, captain of the USS Indianapolis, the ship on which Strain was stationed when he gave his life for his country. Capt. McVay writes as follows:
September 27, 1945
It is with great sorrow that I, as Commanding Officer of the U.S.S. Indianapolis, write to you concerning your husband, Joseph Mason Strain, Seaman Second Class, United States Naval Reserve, who lost his life as a result of the sinking of the Indianapolis in the early morning hours of July 30, 1945.
The Indianapolis was enroute to the Philippines from Guam after a run which set a new speed record for San Francisco, and after delivery of an atomic bomb, she was approximately 450 miles from Leyte, when two heavy under-water explosions occurred on the starboard side forward. She filled rapidly with water through the gaping holes in her under-water body caused by this explosion and within fifteen minutes sank. Many men lost their lives almost instantaneously. The exact manner in which your husband met his death is not known, but it is believes that he went down with his ship.
The first group of survivors were picked up Thursday, August 2, 1945, and the rest, of which I was one, the next morning, bringing the total to fifteen officers and three hundred enlisted men. For days thereafter the area where the ship went down, and where any possible survivors could be, was searched by ships and planes, but no other survivors were picked up.
Nothing that I can say will lighten the burden which is yours at this time, but I do want you to know that your husband had done his part in the team work which made the Indianapolis an efficient fighting unit of the fleet.
The surviving officers and men of my command join me in the expression of wholehearted sympathy to you in the great loss which you have sustained.
Source: Adams County Free Press, Corning, Iowa, Thursday, November 08, 1945, Page 20
Joseph Mason Strain was born Dec. 26, 1915 to Robert Andrew and Lodema Mason Strain. He died July 30, 1945 and is memorialized at the Walls of the Missing, Manila American Cemetery, Taguig City, Philippines and at the USS Indianapolis National Memorial, Indianapolis, IN.
Petty Officer Strain served in World War II with the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Indianapolis (CA-35) and died in the sinking of that vessel.
Sources: ancestry.com; abmc.gov
