This Maine man lost his brother during World War II. He’s still looking for answers.

EAST BOOTHBAY – Howard Wright was in high school in 1944 when he answered the door to a knock and found a boy from Western Union with a telegram bearing news that would devastate his family and raise questions that have lingered for 80 years.

“The Secretary of War would like me to express his deep regret that your son, Private First Class Elmer G. Wright, has been reported missing in Tunisia since March 6,” said the cable from Adjutant General James Ulio.

A month later, the family received news that their 23-year-old son had died when his ship became lost eight miles off the coast of Tunisia. His body was never found.

Howard Wright, now 95, has never stopped mourning his older brother – his eyes still fill with tears as he describes the arrival of that telegram and the kind way his brother had always cared for him. He has spent the past fifty years collecting details about his brother’s service, the convoy of ships he was part of and what happened on the day he died.

The walls of his home office in East Boothbay are covered with framed photos of generations of his family, including a large portrait of Elmer in uniform that dominates one wall.

Below it hangs Elmer’s military police baton and the telegram sent to their parents, Clifford and Dorothy Wright. On a small coffee table sits a four-inch folder full of documents: letters to and from Elmer, photographs of him during his service, military records of Liberty Ships and firsthand accounts of the day Wright’s ship was lost.

For decades, the only medal the family had to commemorate Elmer’s military service was the Purple Heart, awarded after his death. This fall, the Army, with help from the office of Senator Susan Collins of Maine, determined that Elmer Wright was entitled to five more medals.

“PFC Elmer Gay Wright gave his life for the United States during World War II, and honoring his legacy is our duty to him and all who made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation,” Collins said in a statement. “I am proud that we were able to contribute to some closure for his family by securing the data they have long sought, confirming the additional medals he bravely earned. … Despite tremendous challenges in his life, PFC Wright’s patriotism and dedication to our country never wavered, and his meritorious service will not be forgotten.”

In total, Elmer Wright recently received a Presidential Unit Citation, a European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with one Bronze Service Star, an Army Good Conduct Medal, an American Campaign Medal and a World War II Victory Medal sent to Howard. Wright in September.

Receiving these medals was special for Howard Wright, a tangible recognition of the sacrifice his brother made. But one mystery remains: what was the mission that put Elmer Wright on a ship bound for Iran?

He knows there’s a possibility he’ll never know the answer – almost all of his brother’s service records were lost in a fire and most of the World War II veterans have since died – but he won’t let himself lose hope.

“One of the reasons that drives me to do this is I want (my) son, his wife and our grandchildren to know my brother’s story so it won’t be lost and they can appreciate the sacrifice he made,” Howard said Wright.

A CALL FOR SERVICE

The Wright children spent their summers in Maine, wandering Peaks Island and visiting their mother’s family in Portland. Elmer was eight years older than Howard, the youngest in the family. Elmer was always quiet and thoughtful and “you never heard a bad word from him,” Howard Wright said.

“He made sure I was as safe as possible,” he said. “He really took care of me.”

Elmer Wright, who went by Pat, graduated from Colgate University in December 1942 and was drafted into the Army a month later. Howard Wright said his brother would be on limited duty away from combat zones because he was hard of hearing. But the military saw value in his ability to read lips and speak three foreign languages.

He was assigned to a small unit of nine men who all had college degrees and were very fluent in several languages, Howard Wright said. The unit was sent to Fort Custer, Michigan for special training.

Elmer Wright sent a letter on July 24, 1943 to his younger brother who was at summer camp at Lake Sebago. He described learning “everything there is to know about criminal investigation – fingerprinting, taking and developing photographs, making casts of tire tracks, footprints.” They also learned about explosives, a variety of firearms and how to use judo to escape from holds “and how to throw your opponent off his feet,” he wrote.

“I hope you have a great time at camp,” he wrote. “The way you’re practicing marksmanship, it looks like you’re going to have to come over here and give me a few tips on shooting guns.”

Elmer Wright left Norfolk, Virginia, on February 13, 1944 aboard the Daniel Chester French, a Liberty Ship bound for Iran and loaded with ammunition and other war supplies. It was part of a convoy of 90 ships that was caught in a storm off the North African coast. Records show that the seas were still turbulent when the commodore ordered some ships to change their positions on the night of March 5.

Confusion ensued the next morning as the convoy stretched for 12 miles, said Howard Wright, who was able to piece together the night’s events based on military data and firsthand accounts from survivors. The two diverted Liberty Ships, the Daniel Chester French and the Virginia Dare, were about four miles behind.

“It was a monster storm and his ship was taken right through our own minefield,” said Howard Wright.

The Virginia Dare was the first to hit a mine and sent out a distress call at 7:15 am. Five minutes later, the ship Elmer Wright was on hit the mines. It was loaded with ammunition and soon exploded.

Those on board were ordered to abandon ship immediately. It sank within 30 minutes.

HEROIC ACTIONS

The men on board rushed to get to the six available lifeboats. But Howard Wright said his brother and the other 86 army passengers were unaware the lifeboats had open drains in the bottom that had to be closed before being lowered into the rough seas.

When the ship sank, Elmer Wright swam to a lifeboat alongside Lieutenant James Boyle, who survived and later wrote to the family about what happened. The men were pulled into the lifeboat and grabbed by the same oar, working together to row as the seas were too strong for one man alone. The boat filled with water and Elmer Wright told Boyle he would help save him with his helmet.

A few minutes later the boat was lifted by a large wave and turned over. Boyle never saw Elmer Wright again.

“He was scared, like all of us, but not once did he show the slightest sign of fear. When many were praying out loud and paralyzed with fear, he kept his head and tried to do what he could,” Boyle wrote. “In the short time I knew him, he was always a gentleman, and in the boat he behaved like a man.”

Elmer Wright was one of the ship’s 37 men who died that day.

Soon the telegram arrived at Wright’s home in Pennsylvania, followed by a letter from Brigadier General Robert H. Dunlop saying he was missing but providing no details about what had happened.

On May 9, 1944, Dunlop wrote another letter to the Wright family, this time informing them that Elmer Wright had died on March 6 while a passenger “on an American ship sunk as a result of enemy action in the Mediterranean Sea. Sea near Bizerte, Tunisia.”

“I know the sorrow this message has brought you and I hope that the knowledge of his heroic service to his country, even in death, may be a comfort to you in the long run,” Dunlop wrote.

Three years later, Dorothy Wright wrote a letter to Army officials in which the never-ending grief of a Gold Star Mother was evident in every line. She told Boyle’s details of the terrifying minutes after their ship ran into trouble and her fear that her son, “who had a nervous heart and was quite hard of hearing,” could not hear the warnings that the boat was about to pass .

‘He was a good swimmer, otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to guide the boat through the waves in the first place. Perhaps his heart, which was beating rapidly from nervousness and exertion, gave way under the strain of swimming and work in the boat,” she wrote. ‘I just hope he wasn’t temporarily stunned and regained consciousness miles away from any help. Perhaps he held on as Lieutenant Boyle did, but no one saw him collapse and his body was among those left behind like driftwood.

It wasn’t until years later that Howard Wright discovered the truth: the Daniel Chester French was downed by friendly fire, not an enemy.

He said he was glad his mother never knew because it would have been so upsetting. But he still wishes he knew what his brother’s unit was doing on that ship. Relatives of other men in the unit have told him it was a “silent” mission, involving regular contact with both Allied and Axis spies.

Eighty years after losing his brother, Howard Wright wonders what he would think of his fifty-year search for answers.

‘I hope he would think I was trying to understand a senseless loss. It’s one thing to be killed by the enemy, but to be killed by yourself, that’s a big pill to swallow,” he said, pausing as his voice was overcome with sadness. “He gave his life.”

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