In Remembrance - USS Reuben James - DD 245

[82Rigger]

On October 31, 1941, the four-stack destroyer USS Reuben James (DD-245) was sunk by a German submarine while on convoy escort duty. This was over a month before Pearl Harbor; the U.S. was not yet at war.

Commissioned in 1919, the Reuben James was honored to be chosen, in 1921, to escort the remains of the Unknown Soldier of WW1 from France back to the USA to lie in Arlington Cemetery in the land of his birth.

God bless you, brave seamen! You are not forgotten!


Have you heard of the ship called the good Reuben James?
Manned by hard fighting men of both honor and fame
She flew the Stars and Stripes of the Land of the Free
But tonight she's in her grave at the bottom of the sea.

Tell me what were their names, tell me what were their names,
Did you have a friend on the good Reuben James?
What were their names, tell me what were their names,
Did you have a friend on the good Reuben James ?

'Twas there in the dark of that uncertain night
That we watched for the U-boats and waited for a fight.
Then a whine and a rock and a great explosion roar
And they laid the Reuben James on the cold ocean floor.

One hundred men were drowned in that dark watery grave
When that good ship went down, only forty four were saved
Twas the last day of October that we saved the forty four
From the cold icy water off the cold Iceland shore.

Now tonight there are lights in our country so bright.
In the farms and the cities they are telling of this fight.
Now our mighty battleships will steam the bounding main
And remember the name of the good Reuben James.

Well, many years have passed since those brave men have gone
And those cold icy waters are still and they're calm
Many years have passed but still I wonder why
The worst of men must fight and the best of men must die.

[MM38084]

I thought the USS OLYMPIA brought back the remains?

[82Rigger]

That's correct.

The Reuben James escorted, as stated above.