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NAME Cecil Vaughn Stone, Jr. |
NICKNAME Coach Stone |
SERVICE NUMBER 387299 |
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| UNIT 155mm Artillery Group 10th Defense Battalion |
HOME OF RECORD 140 Higgins Street Knoxville, TN |
NEXT OF KIN Wife, Mrs. Margaret P. Stone |
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| DATE OF BIRTH April 3, 1912 at Knoxville, TN |
ENTERED SERVICE June 2, 1942 at Nashville, TN |
DATE OF LOSS June 23, 1943 |
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| REGION Solomon Islands |
CAMPAIGN / AREA At Sea |
CASUALTY TYPE Missing In Action Declared Dead June 24, 1944 |
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| CIRCUMSTANCES OF LOSS Corporal Cecil V. Stone, Jr., was an artilleryman stationed with a coastal defense battery of the 10th Defense Battalion during the campaigns for the Solomon Islands. After demonstrating his leadership skills on Tulagi and Banika, Corporal Stone was selected for Officer Candidate School. In June of 1943, he received orders to report to Camp Elliott, California by the first available naval transport. Stone happily packed his bags and departed from Banika on 18 June; four days later, he boarded the USS Aludra (AK-72) for the next leg of his journey. At 0444 on 23 June, Aludra was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine Ro-103. The explosion blew the ship’s forward hatch cover and cargo booms overboard. This hatch cover was a popular sleeping spot for enlisted passengers and crew; a report later noted that most of the casualties of the attack were those camped out on or near the forward hatch. Aludra sank at 0933 hours. Among those missing was Corporal Cecil Stone. He was declared dead on 24 June 1944, and the exact cause of his death in the sinking remains unknown. |
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| INDIVIDUAL DECORATIONS Purple Heart |
LAST KNOWN RANK Corporal |
STATUS OF REMAINS Lost at sea |
MEMORIALS Manila American Cemetery |
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Biography:
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