Tracking down the past : Book leads North Canaan man to confirm WWII stories

NORTH CANAAN — The series of coincidences that uncovered this story is as interesting as the story itself. It was no family secret that Rob Mueller’s mother lost a fiancé in World War II. But details seemed lost to the past.

It was by chance that Mueller recently stopped at the East Canaan Package Store to check on some old lottery tickets. He doesn’t know what compelled him. He doesn’t shop at package stores and when he occasionally plays the lottery, he buys tickets elsewhere. But the store is just down the street from his home. So there he was, waiting for store employee and friend George Zavagnin to scan his tickets. He didn’t win cash, but came away with something much more valuable.

“George had a book on the counter he had just got. On the cover was a picture of a World War II battleship. It got my attention because I’m very interested in military history, especially World War II.â€

Zavagnin told him it was the story of three Navy destroyers that sank in a typhoon in the Pacific on Dec. 18, 1944.

“I asked him the names of the boats. When he mentioned the Navy destroyer USS Spence, I told him I had grown up hearing stories about what I was pretty sure was the name of the boat that sank with a man named Robert Strand on board who my mom had been engaged to.

“George thought I was joking, but he said he would look for Bob Strand’s name as he read the book.â€

About two weeks later, Zavagnin showed up at Mueller’s house, excited to show him that Strand’s story was not only featured in the book, but also that there, among some photos, was one of Bob Strand, on leave and posing with Mueller’s mom, then Jane Michel.

“I couldn’t believe it,†Mueller said. “I was hoping to learn more about Strand, and here were four or five references not just to him, but to my mom and her end of the story.â€

Even more amazing, the book, “Down to the Sea,†by Bruce Henderson, published in 2007, confirms a story Mueller knew well. The setting is Strand’s and Michel’s hometown of Ridgway, Pa.

“When Bob came home on leave a couple of times, it was always at night, and without warning, because all wartime activities were secret. He would surprise my mom by throwing pebbles at her bedroom window so he could say hi to her before he went to his parents’ house.

“The week before Christmas 1944, my mom was awakened by two stones hitting her window. She ran to the window expecting to see Bob there, but there was no one.â€

It was as long as a month before Strand’s parents got the telegram informing them their son had been lost at sea.

“When they informed my mom that the boat had gone down on Dec. 18, she remembered that it was the night she swore she heard pebbles on her window. For the rest of her life, she believed that Bob had come back somehow to say goodbye. To read that same story years later in the book was unbelievable.â€

Mueller’s wife, Margo, bought him a copy of “Down to the Sea.†As he read the very personal accounts of Strand’s wartime experiences aboard the Spence, and gazed at the photo of his very young mother, seated on a familiar Adirondack chair, he wondered how the author had found the information. It was more than he, his sister, brother and other family members knew. They did not know the book was being written.

Internet research uncovered a history of the Spence by Richard Strand, Bob’s brother, who currently resides in Southbury. He collaborated with Henderson, supplying a wealth of information for the book, including all 216 letters his brother wrote home. About two years before Jane Mueller died, Strand visited her in Windsor to verify some of his information.

Richard Strand kept track of Jane until 2000, when he received word of her death from Jane’s daughter. The two families plan to reconnect.

Bob Strand was just 23 when he died. The Spence had seen 13 months in battle, earning eight battle stars and surviving almost miraculously. Bob, a machinist’s mate, and Jane, two years younger, had dated since she graduated high school in 1940. While his family considered them engaged, it was never official.

“They talked about getting married, and we had no doubt they would. I thought they would get married when Bob came home on leave, like a lot of people did during the war,†Richard Strand said. “But he had a bad feeling when he was home on leave for the last time. He told me, ‘I’m not coming back’.â€

Shortly after heading back to the South Pacific, he wrote to his parents, Josephine and Alvin.

“Guess I wasn’t such good company while I was home but I had missed so darn much for the last year and a half that I had a lot of catching up to do. I really had the best two weeks I ever lived and that is no fooling. Jane was really swell and to me she is the one and only. Would have really liked to have been married but for the fact that I had to go back to the Pacific zone and that was the big reason. Should I get a decent break, I expect you will be a daddy-in-law and a mother-in-law. Of course, I have to get a break soon.â€

A few years after his death, a broken-hearted Jane Michel decided to start a new life. She bought a one-way ticket to Hartford, likely because she had been working for an insurance company.

“She got a room at the YWCA, found a job at the Aetna Insurance Company and befriended a woman named Florence Mueller, my aunt,†Rob Mueller said. “Florence was living on a family property in East Hartland and invited Jane up for dinner one Friday night after work. Florence also invited her brother, Bob, who had just got back from the Pacific after serving in the Army Air Corps. Neither Jane nor Bob knew the other was going to be there. Jane and Bob met that night, dated, married and raised three kids together.â€

Twenty years ago, shortly after Bob Mueller died, Richard Strand visited Jane, giving her a copy of his 40-page document.

“It was on the 50th anniversary of VJ day in 1996 that I heard on the radio that the National Archives were going to be opened to the public. Our son lives about 20 minutes away in Maryland,†Strand said.

Over 10 full days, he searched out and read every bit of information he could find on the Spence. From deck logs and an “illegal†diary kept by a sailor, he plotted on a map where the ship was each day and what they were doing.

Through the Veteran’s Administration in St. Louis, he sought to contact the families of the 319 men lost on the Spence. He has reached and given copies of his document to about 100 of them. All told, he has given away 230 copies.

The document is also now available in PDF format at destroyerhistory.org.

Having those childhood stories documented in such detail is somewhat miraculous for Mueller. He marvels at how easily it might not have happened.

“What are the chances that George would buy a book in Great Barrington because it looked interesting, have it on the counter at the package store and have me ask about it when I came to check my lottery tickets? Talk about something that was meant to happen! We would never have known about the book if not for all of this happening. It’s still hard to believe.â€

On a wider note, Mueller said, “I can’t help but think of how many stories like this must have happened during wartime and how many stories are being lost as our older vets pass on.â€