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Note: Howard Edwin Stoner, younger son of a youngest son, grew up in SW Pennsylv ania. Told of three childhood memories: On Saturdays he and his friends would go to the movies in a very long li ne of boys. Each boy would say the next boy had his money until the la st boy said he thought the first had paid. He wasn't allowed in so his fr iends would open the side door to let him in. On summer nights he and his friend used to see a light on up in the hill s. They were curious and one night after everyone else was asleep they sl ipped out of their homes and met to climb the hill and investigate. Aft er carefully and quietly climbing the hill they came to a wire fence wi th cans full of buckshot dangling. They managed to get through this obsta cle without making any noise and crept up to the window to peek in. Th ey saw a Ku Klux Klan meeting taking place and were so terrified that th ey ran home without stopping to be quiet and spent the rest of the summ er afraid they would be found out. He attended school in a one room schoolhouse where, as one of the "big boy s" he had to arrive early (through several feet of snow) to chop wood a nd fire up the stove to warm the room for the teacher and the little child ren. One year the school door opened and three men walked in dress ed in Ku Klux Klan robes. The students sat petrified. Without a word t he first man handed an American flag to the teacher. They left as silent ly as they had arrived. Howard enjoyed an outdoor life as a chld. He worked on the family farm, f ished and hunted throughout the woods and creeks and rivers of Southwest P ennsylvania.
When he left home, Howard became a life guard at Orchard Beach in New Yor k. After marrying (Mary)and having one child (Irene) he enlisted in the Na vy on 5 October 1943 as a SeaBee. He had a second daughter (Mary Jane in September 1944.) While serving on t he USS Drexler on picket duty in the Northeast Okinawa Area, his ship w as attacked and sunk by 2 or 3 Japanese kamikazes on 24 May 1945. He was w ounded in action and rescued after helping the captain cling to debr is in the water. After transfer to a hospital ship, USS Solace, he was se nt to the Naval Hospital at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and then to the Vetera ns Hospital in Farragut, Idaho, from there honorable discharged (physic al disability) as a Mailman Second Class on 28 September 1945. He receiv ed the Purple Heart and Area Campaign Ribbon for service in American Are a, Asiatic-Pacific Area. As so many other, he didn't talk about the war ve ry much, especially not with daughters who he believed should be careful ly restricted in what they heard and learned. The source of this informat ion was a copy of his military records (Military Service Number 814 40-79 .) As a PhD Psychologist, I recognize many of his symptoms and later behav ior as coming from Post Traumatic Shock Disorder.
After the war, Howard served as a mail carrier and a parcel postman. A th ird daughter (Carol) was born in June 1946. Always a vigorous outdoorsm an and sportsman, Howard loved to hunt (rifle, shotgun and archery) and fi sh (fly, spinning, fresh and salt water.) Most of his outdoor activities w ere off-limits to his daughters although he taught those who wanted to lea rn swimming, archery, fishing and shooting and took them on many family na ture trips - to Pound Ridge, Croton, Rhode Island, Maine and Canada. Eve ry fall, he would go hunting and bring back doughnuts and apple cider f or the children and bittersweet for his wife to decorate the house for t he holidays. The chldren always gave him something sports-related for Chri stmas and his birthday - gloves, books both funny and serious, and joke gi fts such as a World's Greatest Fisherman statue.
Howard had his first heart attack in 1955. He retired reluctantly but d id some work as a security guard. He was a member of the New Rochelle Vol unteer Police, the American Legion, several fishing and hunting clubs incl uding the Outers Club. He loved to watch baseball, boxing football on tele vision. A quiet man, he loved to work in his garage/workshop carving gunst ocks, making fishing rods, tying flies and creating lures, making bows a nd arrows, quivers and knive sheaths and loading his own ammunition. H is world was one of gun cleaning oil, Dope paint, glue, feathers, leathe r, yarn, twine and gunpowder. He smoked and enjoyed beer but had to c ut back when he was diagnosed with an ulcer. After surviving three more he art attacks, he suffered a fatal coronary thrombosis attack on 3 Septemb er 1958. His wake and funeral were very well attended by people from Bless ed Sacrament Church and the Post Office and the American Legion (who sa ng My Buddy.) He had a military funeral at Good Shepherd Cemetary and w as buried in the White Family plot.
Died of a coronary thrombosis - fifth heart attack. Also had ulcers. Suf fered from PTSD as a result of war injuries. Was one of the few survivo rs of the USS Drexler which was sunk by a kami-kazi attack during the inva sion of Okinawa. Buried in Good Shepherd Cemetary.
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