In the Highest Traditions of the Naval Service: Pharmacist’s Mate Durward Allan Laney and the Cavite Navy Yard Bombing

It is a rarity in the annals of war when one finds a dental technician gaining recognition for heroic action on the field of battle; their valuable duties seldom bring dental practitioners to within the sound of gunfire. However, in the opening days of World War II, Ohioan Durward Laney of the U.S. Navy gave his life for his country and achieved distinction by being recommended for the Navy Cross.

Pharmacist's Mate 2nd Class Durward Allan Laney, U.S. Navy

          Durward Allan Laney was born February 24, 1918 in Fremont, Ohio, the first born of Floyd and Nellie (Burkett) Smith. Shortly after Durward’s birth, Floyd was drafted into the U.S. Army and served in the A.E.F. for nearly a year as a cook. 

Nellie and Durward Laney, 1919

           Upon his honorable discharge in 1919, he returned home and began to work as a cook in restaurants in Fremont. The Laney family added two daughters to the family, Audrey Ellen born in 1920 and Nina Belle in 1922. Home life was challenging. Floyd Laney struggled with alcohol, and his violent behavior towards Nellie and children “caused her to live in constant fear for her safety and that of their children.” The Sandusky County court granted Nellie a divorce in 1925, and it is unknown whether Durward ever had contact with his father again.

Durward Laney in 1935

In 1927, he was enrolled at the Ohio Soldiers and Sailors Orphans Home in Xenia, Ohio.  Durward thrived in the military atmosphere at O.S.S.O.H. As a junior in 1935, he served as a page in the Ohio House of Representatives and in the next year excelled in football, swimming and basketball, as well as being the cadet major of the local ROTC unit. On graduation night in 1936, Laney received the ‘Honor Student Medal’ from the American Legion of Ohio.

Upon graduation, he immediately indicated an interest to join the Navy. As was the custom of the time, the Navy sent a representative from the Toledo Naval Armory to investigate Durward’s home life and habits. “He is a clean cut lad, neat in dress, and comes well recommended,” Machinist’s Mate 3^rd Class Johann Thiede wrote to the Navy Department. “He had made up his mind, knows what he wants to do and should be given due consideration for enlistment.” 

          The Navy agreed with Thiede’s assessment and Durward enlisted in the U.S. Navy on May 19, 1937 at Detroit, Michigan. After three months, Durward graduated with high marks from the recruit training school at Norfolk and was selected to attend the Navy’s Hospital Corps school in San Diego, California. Laney’s descriptions of the adventures on this trip to San Diego give a sense of his ebullient free spirit.

Laney's rank insignia

 “We reached Chicago Sunday afternoon about 3:30. What a time we had there! Met an old geezer in a drug store who thought sailors were tops. Result- scotch for lil’ Sinbad,” he wrote. “Well, with drinking the potent stuff and shooting the bull with this guy it became 8:18. Wow! Our train left at 8:20. Another one of the fellows was with me and we were two blocks from the station. Boy did our heels fly. We ran all the way and in passing the porter in the station asked which was our train. Wonder of wonders we caught it just as it was moving out.”

The coursework at the sixteen week school was brutal: anatomy, physiology, bandaging, first aid and medical surgery, pharmacy, maternal medicine and toxicology, hygiene and sanitation, nursing, dietetics, and bacteriology. ”Keeps me studying morning, noon, and night,” he wrote in October 1937. Laney graduated 28^th in his class of 48 in January 1938 and was assigned to duty at the hospital ward in San Diego.

Nine months of duty in the hospital led to an appointment to the dental clinic and the real start of Laney’s navy career. He served in San Diego for about a year before being transferred back east to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Seeking further adventures, Laney agreed to extend his enlistment by two years in exchange for a transfer to the Asiatic Fleet based in the Philippines. He left the Atlantic Fleet in September 1940 and started the long journey westward, arriving at the receiving ship in San Francisco on October 27, 1940. 

U.S.S. Chaumont

          Laney boarded the U.S.S. Chaumont and set sail from San Francisco for the Orient on January 8, 1941. The 13,400 ton, 448 foot long transport loafed along at a leisurely maximum speed of 14 knots, which ensured that the cruise across the Pacific was a long, grueling affair to a landsman. Writing to his mother from Guam, Laney lamented that while he felt “tip top,” he was tired of traveling. “We have come just 6,500 miles so far from San Francisco and still have 1,500 miles to get to Manila. It certainly has taken a long time to get this far from New York; have traveled about 18,000 miles.” The naval transport made stops along the way at San Pedro, San Diego, Honolulu, Midway, Wake, and Guam, before arriving in the Philippines more than a month after leaving San Francisco. 

          Laney arrived in the Philippines on February 10, 1941 and was briefly assigned to the naval hospital at Canacao before he transferred to the Naval Dispensary at Cavite Navy Yard near Manila a few weeks later. On March 6^th, he reported in person to Lieutenant Commander Hjalmer A. Erickson, the officer in charge of the dispensary, who assigned him to Lieutenant (j.g.) Robert G. Herthneck of the Dental Corps.

Pre-war image of Cavite Naval Base in the Philippines

          The Cavite Navy Yard dispensary “was a two story wooden structure with a carpenter’s shop on one side and a print shop on the other. Examination rooms were on the ground floor while the medical officers were housed in the bachelor’s officers’ quarters upstairs.” Duty was light- the dispensary observed tropical hours (6 a.m. to 1 p.m.) which gave the sailors assigned to dispensary plenty of time to survey the local attractions and to sample the local womenfolk. As a matter of fact, one of the primary duties of the dispensary was to regularly check the three local Marine companies for venereal disease. 

          The relaxed, free spirited atmosphere of the “Pearl of the Orient” suited Laney. “The duty out here isn’t bad, a bit monotonous at times,” Laney wrote home to his mother in June 1941. “I belong to a club where we occasionally get together and drink a little beer. We also take short trips around the island. The Navy furnishes a bus for the trips which I think is quite nice of them. Every couple of weeks we have a dance and I have made many friends through the club; we even have our own building which is called the American Shack.” Laney also admitted to his mother that he had upped his enlistment by two years to get the transfer to the Philippines. “I like the Navy. It is tough sometimes getting transferred here and there but the benefits to be derived after retirement overshadow the things that seem unpleasant now,” he argued. “Of course, in another two years, I may have a different outlook, but that remains to be seen.” 

           

Overhead view of the base dated October 27, 1941. 

           The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 came as a shock but not a surprise to the naval establishment in the Philippines. Yet many of the sailors at Cavite learned of the attack the same way as their countrymen back in the states: they heard the news on the radio. The American commanders in the Philippines proved slow to react to the danger; most of the American air force was caught on the ground at Clark Field by a Japanese air attack at mid day on December 8, 1941. In the Cavite Navy Yard, the medical staff were given tin helmets, gas masks, and side arms and ordered to be on the lookout for sabotage.

         

           A few of the officers tried to get the Navy Yard prepared for an air attack that they felt was sure to come. Lieutenant Fred Berley of the medical detachment knew that the dispensary was a death trap if an air raid took place. “Berley suggested an alternative: the old paint locker behind the dispensary, which was made of concrete blocks a foot square and was built below street level. He had the locker stocked with bandages, operating instruments, kerosene lamps and flashlights.” The lieutenant also enlisted forty five stretcher bearers and ordered them to report to the paint locker on the double in the event of an air raid. 

          

         The expected Japanese air attack came at mid day on December 10^th. The Japanese bombers flew over Cavite at more than 20,000 feet, well out of range of the antiaircraft guns that were supposed to protect the base. Men on the ground could see the individual bombs floating to the earth, but once they hit, all hell broke loose. Explosions from 300 bombs wracked the yard fore and aft. Most of the important buildings of the yard burst into flames. One bomb even hit the paint locker, which miraculously withstood the blast. 

The Japanese bombing of Cavite devastated the base. 

In the midst of this sudden rain of bombs, Lt. Cmdr. Erickson realized that not everyone had been evacuated from the dispensary. Durward Laney volunteered to investigate and get the men into the safety of the paint locker. If no one was in the dispensary, he would return with a load of medical supplies as it was evident that they would be needed. Darting across the flaming yard, Laney’s heart must have sunk when he entered the dispensary: more than twenty patients cowered in the flimsy structure. Disregarding his own safety, Laney jumped inside the dispensary just as a Japanese bomb landed on the building and blew it to splinters. Erickson witnessed Laney’s heroism from the paint locker, and survived the attack.

          

Laney's Purple Heart

          The following day, detachments of the Filipino Fleet Reserve and the Provisional Military Police entered Cavite Yard to gather, identify and bury the dead. “It was a grisly task. The stench was overpowering. Of the 167 bodies disposed of, only seven could be identified. They cremated a few by dousing them in kerosene; bomb craters became tombs for the rest. Laney’s remains were never found.” 

This Japanese photo shows smoke pouring from the base
during the bombing.

News of Laney’s death did not reach his family for nearly two weeks. The telegram was delivered to Nellie Smith’s residence of 2034 Ashland Ave. at 2 a.m. on December 21, 1941. The message was terse: “The Navy Department deeply regrets to inform you that your son, Durward Allan Laney, Pharmacist’s Mate Second Class, USN was killed in action in the performance of his duty and in the service of his country. The department extends to you its sincerest sympathy in your great loss. To prevent possible aid to our enemies, please do not divulge the name of his ship or station. If not possible to send the remains home, they will be interred temporarily in the locality where death occurred and you will be notified accordingly.” After two years of wrangling, the Navy finally agreed to grant Mrs. Smith a six months death gratuity that amounted to more than $600. The war brought additional tragedy into Nellie’s life; within a month of receiving this gratuity for the loss of her son, her youngest daughter Nina died. 

Nellie (Laney) Smith in 1940. 

Lieutenant Commander Hjalmer A. Erickson was captured when the U.S. forces in the Philippines surrendered in May 1942. He spent three years as a captive of the Japanese consigned to hard labor. But upon his return to the United States in 1945, the memories of Laney’s bravery during the Cavite Navy Yard bombing compelled him to seek recognition for his deceased corpsman. He wrote a series of letters lauding Laney’s heroic actions, going so far as to involve Vice Admiral Ross McIntire, Surgeon General of the U.S. Navy, in arguing his case.  

          

          The letter writing campaign worked. In April 1946, Admiral McIntire recommended that the Navy award Laney with the Navy Cross, the service’s second highest honor next to the Medal of Honor. McIntire’s citation read as follows:

“When the Japanese attacked Sangley Point and the Cavite Navy Yard on the 10^th of December 1941, in accordance with previous plans due to the vulnerability of the Navy Yard Dispensary and it’s proximity to vital military installations, the personnel and patients were immediately evacuated to safer areas in other portions of the Navy yard and the village of Cavite. While the first wave of bombers was passing over the yard, and while the devastating bombs were falling and destroying facilities all around the dispensary, Laney, with completed disregard of his own safety, voluntarily returned to the dispensary for additional first aid supplies and to make a final check to be sure that all patients had been evacuated, narrowly escaping death as he dashed into the fragile structure on his desperate mission. A few seconds later, before he could accomplish his purpose and return to safety, the dispensary was completely destroyed by bombs and the wreckage consumed by flames. Laney heroically gave his life for his country, and his conduct was in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.” (citation- Durward Laney Military Record)

          

Laney's Bronze Star

          Upon further review, the Navy in early 1947 decided to award Laney the Bronze Star, a newer medal of considerably lower precedence than the Navy Cross. Documents in Laney’s military record do not contain any specific reason for this change, but previous documents had pointed out a lack of specificity in Erickson’s description of Laney’s actions. Regardless, the Navy chose to award Laney the Bronze Star but used the same language in the citation that Admiral McIntire had used in his Navy Cross recommendation. With appropriate ceremony, the formal presentation was made in Nellie Smith’s home on Floyd Street in Toledo on April 15, 1947. 

To commemorate her lost son, Nellie Smith erected a stone in his memory at Oakwood Cemetery in his birthplace of Fremont, Ohio. In addition, Durward’s younger sister Audrey Parkinson named her first born son Durward in honor of her deceased brother. Durward Parkinson today is in possession of Laney’s effects, including his Purple Heart and Bronze Star, mementoes of a forgotten hero of World War II.

Oakwood Cemetery, Fremont, Ohio

Final Citation as awarded by Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal and signed February 20, 1947:

“The President of the United States takes pride in presenting the Bronze Star Medal posthumously to Durward Allan Laney, Pharmacist’s Mate Second Class, U.S. Navy for service set forth in the following citation:

“For heroic service as a member of a Hospital Corps detachment at the Navy Yard Dispensary, Cavite, Philippine Islands, during the bombing of Sangley Point and the Cavite Navy Yard by enemy Japanese forces on December 10, 1941. Helping evacuate personnel and patients from the Navy Yard Dispensary while devastating bombs were falling in the are and destroying facilities in close proximity to this building, Laney voluntarily returned to the dispensary to obtain additional first aid supplies to make sure that all patients had been evacuated. Narrowly escaping death as he dashed into the fragile structure, he attempted to rescue the remaining group of 25 patients until, a few seconds later, he was struck down by a direct bomb hit which completely destroyed the dispensary and left it in flames. Stout hearted and indomitable throughout, Laney rendered invaluable assistance to his wounded comrades, and his courageous and self sacrificing devotion to duty was in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.”

The Laney family possesses the letters Durward wrote home before the war and gave their permission to be used. I've also quoted from Glusman, John A. Courage Under Fire: Four American Doctors and Their Fight for Life as Prisoners of the Japanese, 1941-1945. New York: Viking, 2005, pgs. 41-45 which gives a description of the Cavite Navy Yard attack.