USS Wisconsin's Burials at Sea

By Alex Bowback
Maintenance Coordinator, Battleship Wisconsin

USS Wisconsin (BB 64) never suffered fatal casualties directly resulting from combat. However, during the ship’s tours of service, Wisconsin was not unfamiliar with the high price of war paid by many Sailors. Equipped with the best at-sea medical facilities, Battleship Wisconsin received many Sailors from destroyers with wounds severe enough to need treatment that could not be rendered on the smaller vessels. Battleship Wisconsin’s medical personnel provided the best care they could for the wounded, but in some cases those wounds were just too severe.

USS Wisconsin sailing in the western Pacific, December 1944 (NHHC)

Harry Vivian Yetter was only 20 years old when he found himself being transferred by high line to USS Wisconsin above the rolling seas of the Pacific Ocean in April 1945. A Seaman 1st Class aboard USS McDermut (DD 677), Yetter was among a string of severe casualties transferred for treatment after a friendly fire incident: USS Missouri, attempting to shoot down a low-flying kamikaze, peppered USS McDermut with countless anti-aircraft rounds and one 5-inch shell, the latter creating a four-foot diameter hole in the hull and penetrating the forward fireroom. Some of the casualties needed more treatment than could be provided by the limping destroyer’s medical team. Unfortunately, war has its cost and even on a ship with state-of-the-art medical equipment, some wounds are just too severe.

After suffering a long night in critical condition in USS Wisconsin’s sick bay, Harry Vivian Yetter of Chatfield, Minnesota, succumbed to his wounds and was buried at sea from the starboard side fantail on April 16, 1945. He is one of three Sailors who were buried at sea from USS Wisconsin during wartime operations when the ship was with Battleship Division Nine during the Second World War.

The two other WWII Sailors who were committed to the deep from USS Wisconsin also served on destroyers that screened carrier groups. Machinist’s Mate 3rd Class Robert Edward Caya, a 37-year-old Sailor born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was transferred to Wisconsin after his ship, USS Watts (DD 567), came under attack by Japanese kamikaze. He was buried at sea on August 11, 1945. Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class Mervin Randolph Clark was on USS Maddox (DD 731) when his ship came under fire from Japanese guns. He was transferred to Wisconsin, where the ship’s medical team tried to save him, but 27-year-old Mervin Randolph Clark, born in Limestone, Tennessee, succumbed to his wounds and was buried at sea on January 22, 1945.

A Sailor on USS Wisconsin stops to pray. (NHHC)

By the time USS Wisconsin had laid to rest Harry V. Yetter, Mervin R. Clark, and Robert E. Caya, these Sailors had already done the same with two members of their own crew a few months prior. One of these sailors was Seaman 2nd Class Joe J. Goldblatt, who died on August 21, 1944, on authorized leave while the ship was in Philadelphia. He was buried in Tiferet Israel-Agudas Achim Cemetery, Dallas, Texas. The other Sailor was Seaman 2nd Class Frank O. Ratcliffe. He developed pneumonia while the ship was anchored in Honolulu, Hawaii, and at 8:10 A.M. on November 16, 1944, while he was in sick bay, he died from his illness. Ratcliffe was buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.

USS Wisconsin closed out WWII having suffered no casualties of its own as a result of combat; but in 1951, when the ship was reactivated for the Korean Conflict after a few years in mothball, the starboard side fantail was again prepared to commit another man to the deep. This time, however, it would not be a Sailor from USS Wisconsin’s own Navy. It would be a combatant from the other side of the 38th parallel, a North Korean prisoner of war.

There are not many details about the burial at sea of this North Korean POW. The only evidence that can be found are photographs from USS Wisconsin’s 1951-52 cruise book and oral accounts from Sailors aboard the ship at the time of the burial. From the evidence we do have, we know that this North Korean POW was given full military honors and was committed to the deep with the same respect a Sailor from the U.S. Navy would have received. No exact date has been found, but we know the year to be 1951, while USS Wisconsin was serving off the Korean peninsula.

It is important to remember these five Sailors and North Korean POW when understanding USS Wisconsin’s military career in both WWII and the Korean Conflict. These six show us just how personal war became to the Sailors of USS Wisconsin, whether it was members of the ship’s own crew, like Frank Ratcliffe and Joe Goldblatt; or members of other ships’ companies who were transferred to Wisconsin for medical care, like Harry Yetter, Mervin Clark, Robert Caya, and the unnamed POW. For the latter four, the fantail is the closest thing to a tangible grave they have and should be respected as a place of memorial for those who gave the last full measure of devotion to their country. It is the last place their earthly bodies would rest among their comrades as the words “we therefore commit this body to the deep” rang out to all hands standing silently on deck.