The Legend of GM2C David A. Purcell and His Purple Heart

A Sad Yet Still Heartwarming Story From World War II

By JIM PURCELL

I call this the 'legend' of my uncle, David A. Purcell (1925-1944), because it has only been a story handed down to me, since I was born in 1966 and never met him. But, I thought it was a tale worth writing down someplace that would be around for a long time, and this website will be around for a very long time.

According to my mother, the late Ruth Purcell, she attended a memorial service for my Uncle David that was held in early 1945, in Newark, New Jersey. It commemorated the brief life of her fiancee's brother. Of course, my Mom's fiancee was my father, James, Sr., who was still fighting the war in Europe at the time in the United States Army.

My mother attended the memorial service with my father's Mom, Grace Purcell, who was the widowed mother of the Purcell family, in Newark, which included my Dad, my Uncle Charles, Uncle David, Aunt Marie (Rizzolo) and Aunt Susan (DiEdwardo). My Uncle David was the youngest of the family and was, according to both his sisters and my mother, the life of the party. He was a frequent joke-teller who, according to my favorite aunt, Aunt Susan, worked very hard "...at trying to get every girl in Newark to fall in love with him and not being serious about anything."

U.S. Navy landing craft bringing troops ashore during Anzio

According to my aunts, one thing that everyone in their family had was love of the country that accepted them. My family were Irish immigrants, and they came to this country with an open heart. This was true of all of the Purcell children. "This was our country, and we loved it. We respected our Irish roots, but were always American first and damn proud of that," my Aunt Marie once said.

I once had a photo of my uncle, sadly that photo was the one printed in the Newark Star-Ledger reporting that he was listed as missing following the Battle of Anzio (January 22, 1944). Somewhere along the way in the past 30 or so years since I received it, I lost the press clipping. It was a black and white picture of David, who was a handsome youth in his blue Navy uniform. He was fit and had my father's look to him and, according to everyone who knew him, he had black hair and blue eyes (much like my own brother, also named David).

At the time of the memorial, David had previously been listed as missing in action for a year. Following that year, at that time, service members were assumed killed in action if that absence occurred during a battle, particularly one at sea. So, the family paid what respects it could to a child and sibling who did not have a body sent home.

Why had David joined the Navy in the first place? He was young enough to wait to get drafted. He didn't have to volunteer, my mother once said. But, my Aunt Susan informed her one year, during Thanksgiving 1973: "Because he had to do something to defend his country and he couldn't stay at home... was the way he saw it...and he loved the sea." People from Newark don't mince words, not now and maybe not ever. Mom got that, a tear in her eye, and nodded.

David was a gunner's mate second class, according to U.S. Navy records. The American Battle Monuments Commission reports his name and rank, the date he went missing, and the cemetery in Italy where he is buried only. The rest of the story will be filled in from conversations I have heard and was a part of about David. However, I am re-telling the story as I remember it. And, this is one story that I have not forgotten over the years.

So, my Mom is standing next to my grandmother at the church (I think she said it was St. Rose), and my grandmother was finally letting the tears come. My grandmother was a big woman, who worked very hard to stay off welfare mopping floors and cleaning offices after my grandfather, David, died in the late 1920s-early 1930s. She kept her family together through the Great Depression and each of her children worked at small jobs to help the family as well, no matter how little money they brought home. They did after-school or before-school work, but everyone worked. It was "family first." And, it was an achievement for a household that size to stay together during the Depression, but the Purcells had and were darn proud of it.

David's friends were at the memorial, accompanied by their girlfriends. So were some of my uncle's teachers from high school, where he was a member of the track team (like my Dad had been before he transferred to St. Benedict's as a sophomore). My grandmother and mother were in the back of the church. Mom said it was a beautiful day, and the light coming through one of the windows of the sanctuary shone on David's picture and gave it a very nice look.

As my grandmother was in her grief, my mother noticed as a few young ladies, unaccompanied, were in the pews crying nearly as hard as my grandmother. Then, one or two more such young ladies came in, and finally one or two more. My grandmother started to notice as one or two more young, grieving ladies came into the sanctuary. My mother said my Gram stopped crying and offered a wide smile before the first fight broke out closer to the front of the sanctuary.

Two of the young ladies began to scuffle not far from my uncle's picture, followed by some more, who become incensed and began to argue. My mother had no idea what was happening. She stayed at my Gram's side, but there was a change in my father's mother. With her eyes wet with tears she was smiling broadly...and began to laugh.

There was no attempt by my Gram to break up the fight, which mystified my mother. Apparently, my uncle, before he had shipped out, had promised to marry several young ladies in Newark before he went off to serve in the Navy. Accordingly, several young ladies began to argue with each other at his memorial. Mom said my Gram told her, wiping her eyes, "If David hadn't have been killed in Italy, he might damn well have been killed here by jealous boyfriends and angry fathers." The two laughed a little. My grandmother lingered on the large photo of her fallen son, and quietly left the sanctuary.

According to both my aunts Sue and Marie, it was not enough for anyone in the family that the U.S. Navy sent a Purple Heart and no body home. So, my aunts traveled, after the war, to Italy and Anzio. They discovered every fact they could find about my uncle's passing, and at one point were given names of U.S. Navy officers that served with my uncle at the time of his death (no letter from the chain of command ever, reportedly, was received by any member of my family). So, after going to Italy and finding out there was no body for their brother anywhere, they proceeded to find the officers, whose names they were made aware of by the Navy.

According to my aunts, my Uncle David was killed while he was ferrying U.S. Army soldiers from ship to shore aboard a landing craft. My aunts said my uncle's chain-of-command informed them that they were, for whatever reasons, running short on personnel to guide landing crafts from ship to shore. So, David had to make multiple trips. According to my aunts, this was not a common thing for sailors. But, it was what it was. So, on his second trip ashore, while approaching the beach, David's landing craft was struck by enemy indirect fire. He delivered his charges ashore and was heading back to his ship (which ship it was I have found no records of) and his landing craft was struck again, creating a fireball and sinking the landing craft.

My father and his family were never the same. According to my Aunt Sue, "He was our light. And, when he died, that light went out." Still, despite creating some mess at his memorial service, David at least left my grandmother with a smile to remember him by that day.

UPDATE: After further research, I discovered that Uncle David served on LCI 32. He was killed in action during World War II along with fellow shipmates: George L. Marsh, Dilbert B. Mallams, Earl W. Rubens, Olindo P. Martelle, Jack Elkins, Thomas J. Brown, Paul L. Nardilla, William L. Nisbit, Charles W. Seavey, John F. Guethloin, Robert H. Jackson, Warren B. Johnson, Eugene L. Sales, Herbert Starke, George A. Cabana, John W. Finch, Charles J. Gilbride, Ralph Harding, John E. Campbell, Lawrence M. Kennedy, Hamp L. Richardson and Ralph DiMeola. For the historical registry, please click HERE and go to PAGE 25 of The 1091 Flagship of the USS LCI National Association, Issue #62, dated January, 2008.

Further Update: Gunner's Mate Second Class David Purcell is listed among the dead and missing from LCI 32, which was sunk of Anzio, Italy on January 26, 1944 by a mine in ELSIEITEM. For more information, CLICK HERE.