Source: Muscatine Journal and News-Tribune, December 30, 1942
Article: Navy Issues First “Casualty” Lists
The Navy’s first official casualty list, issued on the 5th, contained the names of Arthur Anthony Bersch and David Alonzo Leedy.
This was the first of a series of “official reports” which came to next of kin during the month.
Word came to Mr. and Mrs. Bruce S. Watson, 114 Park avenue on the 9th that their son, Bruce E. Watson, 26, was missing in action.
A Navy list on the 11th reported John Dale Grunder, apprentice seaman, and son of John Albert Grunder of Wilton was among 35 Iowans who were wounded during the period from Dec. 17, 1941 to April 15, 1942.
Another Navy casualty list on the 15th listed as “missing in action” Earl Hinman, son of Mr. and Mrs. C. C. Hinman of Muscatine Island; Glen Allen, son of Mr. and Mrs. Harlan Allen of Wapello; Charles Odle, son of Mr. and Mrs. R. E. Odle of Wapello; and John D. Musser, jr., son of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Musser, sr. of Lone Tree.
On the 19th came the announcement that Leroy Vernon Murphy, former Muscatine high school student was a prisoner of war, held by the Japs at Shanghai, China. The message was dispatched to his mother, Mrs. Edith Hals of North English.
The tragic death of Norman Arthur Kleist, 33, fireman first class, in the U. S. Navy, caused from head injuries while the young man was on authorized leave was revealed in a Navy dispatch to his parents on the 27th. Death had occurred on May 23, the dispatch read.
