Magazine letters lead to meeting of WWII sailors’ relatives

DAVISVILLE, W.Va. - Two letters in Reader’s Digest led to a meeting between a Wood County man and a Tennessee woman whose fathers survived Japanese attacks against the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Bunker Hill during World War II.

Joe Duckworth of Davisville read a submission to “Humor in Uniform” in the June issue of Reader’s Digest that caught his attention.

The article told the story of a serviceman on an anti-aircraft cruiser who had accidentally shot down an unmanned drone target at gunnery practice during World War II.

Duckworth said the story reminded him of a story his father, Clyde, had told him about a drone being shot down during the war.

Duckworth shared his father’s story in the September 2018 issue of Reader’s Digest.

Geanie Varney of Knoxville contacted Duckworth after reading his letter in Reader’s Digest about the drone incident during the war.

Varney told Duckworth that her father, Eugene Brown, had told her about a sailor he had served with on the U.S.S. Bunker Hill who had accidentally shot the tow line off the drone, sending the unmanned glider into the Pacific Ocean.

Duckworth told Varney that his father, Clyde Duckworth, was the sailor who accidentally shot down the drone that day during gunnery practice.

“Her father was there when my father shot the drone down,” Duckworth said.

Duckworth and Varney decided to meet in West Virginia to discuss their fathers’ military service on the U.S.S. Bunker Hill. Varney has a daughter living in Scott Depot, W.Va.

Duckworth and his wife, Patricia, met with Varney at the Cracker Barrel in Cross Lanes, W.Va., on Aug. 29 to share their fathers’ war stories. Clyde Duckworth of Mineral Wells died on July 4, 1995. Varney’s father, who grew up in Texas, died in 1970 at the age of 47.

The two families have no evidence that Duckworth and Brown knew each other on the ship. But they may have had similar work duties on the ship, Varney said.

Varney said it was a “wild coincidence” that she saw Duckworth’s letter in Reader’s Digest.

“I don’t read Reader’s Digest often . . . I was thumbing through it,” when she saw the mention of the U.S.S. Bunker Hill, CVS-17, the ship her father served on. “It’s a small world,” she said. Varney said it was nice talking to the Duckworths, adding it was like they had known each other for years.