Packosnacks for Christmas
Among the list of boys in the service to receive ‘packsnacks’ from the Christmas cheer fund was Herbert O. Creekmur, U. S. A. Abermarle, New York, N. Y.
Source: The Globe-Gazette, Mason City, Iowa, Monday, December 08, 1941, Page 9
Has 15-Day Leave
Herbert Creekmur, petty officer first class, has returned to Norfolk, Va., to the naval hospital for a check-up following an appendectomy. He spent a fifteen day furlough here with his parents at 2001 Wilson avenue southwest.
Source: The Globe-Gazette, Mason City, Iowa, Monday, February 22, 1943, Page 16
MISSING IN ACTION
Mrs. O. O. Creekmur, 2016 Wilson avenue southwest, received word that her son, Herbert O. Creekmur, first class petty officer in the signal corps, is missing in action in the south Pacific. Mr. Creekmur would have been in the navy seven years next Friday, August 13.
Source: The Globe-Gazette, Mason City, Iowa, Tuesday, August 10, 1943, Page 12 (photo included)
Herbert O. Creekmur Given Purple Heart
in Posthumous Award
The purple heart has been awarded posthumously to Herbert Creekmur, signalman 1/c, who met death on July 18, 1943, when his vessel was torpedoed in the Solomon sea. A letter from the bureau of naval personnel to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. O. O. Creekmur, 1007 Wilson S. W., reads:
“The Bureau has the honor to inform you of the award of the purple heart and certificate to your late son, Herbert Oscar Creekmur, signalman 1/c, U. S. navy, in accordance with general order 186 of Jan. 21, 1943, which read in part as follows,” stated the letter from the Bureau of naval personnel at Washington, D. C.
This order states:
“The secretary of the navy is further authorized and directed to award the purple heart posthumously in the name of the president of the United States to any person who while serving with the navy, marine corps or coast guard of the United States since Dec. 6, 1941, are killed in action or who die as a dire result of wounds received in action with an enemy of the United States or as a result of an act of such enemy.”
Source: The Globe-Gazette, Mason City, Iowa, Wednesday, November 15, 1944, Page 14
Creekmur Memorial Services
at Wesley Methodist Sunday
At 2:30 in Afternoon With Doctor Peterson,
Pastor, Officiating
Memorial services will be conducted for Herbert O. Creekmur, soundman (sic) 1/c, at the Wesley Methodist church Sunday afternoon at 2:30, with Doctor Paul Peterson, pastor of the church, in charge.
The death of SoM 1/c Creekmur was officially listed by the navy department to have occurred on July 18, 1944, a year after he had been reported missing on the U. S. S. LST 342, torpedoed in the Soloman sea on July 18, 1944.
Creekmur was born at Ionia on Nov. 12, 1917. He attended grade school at Nora Springs and high school at Mason City. On the completion of his junior year he enlisted with the U. S. navy. At the time of his death he had completed 7 years of service.
He is survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Oscar O. Creekmur, 2007 Wilson S. W.; 5 sisters, Mrs. Fred Peters, Fort Worth, Tex., here to attend the services; Miss Audrey Creekmur, Des Moines; Mrs. Harold Hansen, Mrs. Clarence Wagner and Mrs. Granville Harmon, all of Mason City; 2 brothers, Pvt. Hanford Creekmur, here on furlough from Camp Fannin, Tex., and Gilbert Creekmur, Mason city.
Patriotic organizations are invited to attend the services.
Source: The Globe-Gazette, Mason City, Iowa, Friday, January 05, 1945, Page 5
HONOR MEMORY OF CREEKMUR
His Death Is Parable of War: Doctor Peterson
“The death of Herbert O. Creekmur is a parable of war,” said Doctor Paul A. Peterson at the Wesley Methodist church in memorial services for the navy man who gave his life for his country when his ship was torpedoed in the Solomon sea, in July, 1943.
“A portion of Herbert’s ship was blown off and sank almost immediately. The part which did not sink was later towed to port. It was for this that Herbert and other boys who have died gave their lives – that a portion of the ship might be towed in,” said Doctor Peterson, comparing the remnant of the ship that was saved with the remnants that we are fighting for.
“What are the remnants that he died for?” asked the pastor. “That wars might cease; that the world might be free; that selfishness might be dethroned – these are the purposes for which boys give their lives. They plead that the remnants towed to safety will accomplish this. May their sacrifices not have been in vain.
“Will we gather the saved parts of the ship together and build a new world? That is what Herbert challenges us to do as he stands by our side today,” concluded Doctor Peterson.
Mrs. Peterson sang “Beautiful Isle of Somewhere” and “Safe in the Arms of Jesus,” accompanied by Mrs. Carl H. Carlson.
Source: The Globe-Gazette, Mason City, Iowa, Tuesday, January 09, 1945, Page 12
Herbert Oscar Creekmur was born Nov. 12, 1917 to Oscar Otis and Lucile Catherine Britt Creekmur. He died July 18, 1943/FOD July 19, 1944 and is memorialized at the Walls of the Missing, Manila American Cemetery, Taguig City, Philippines.
Petty Officer Creekmur served in World War II with the U.S. Navy aboard the USS LST-342 and was MIA/KIA when that ship was sunk by a Japanese torpedo off the Solomon Islands.
Source: ancestry.com
