Concordia resident becomes naval expert

On Sept. 1, 1942, Stan Defoe was anchored on the shores of Scotland in a U.S. Navy merchant ship. The next day, his convoy got under way to Russia.

"There were 40 ships in the convoy, and they were all called PQ 18. All the early ships to Russia were called PQ on the way there and QP on the way back," Defoe, 91, of Concordia, said.

These kinds of facts are Defoe's specialty -- the ins and outs of military history and those who have served. That is one of the main reasons he traveled to Groton, Conn., to see the commissioning ceremony of the sixth U.S.S. Missouri on July 31.

"My real interest was going to this memorial and to see what had happened with it since it was installed," Defoe explained.

The surviving members of the U.S. Navy's elite Submarine Service built the WWII National Submarine Memorial-East located in Groton, Conn. in 1955. To Defoe, his 32 years of active reserve Navy service has shaped his life, and led him to become an expert in the field of documenting lost seamen and women.

"I'm conceited enough to tell people that I'm the most knowledgeable person on military in this area," Defoe said.

He's been conducting research since 1987 in order to collect the names of Navy casualties from 1941 to 1946.

"One of the things I have is the microfilm of the Navy casualty list from 1941 to 1946, and I've used it for many different things over the years," Defoe said.

Using this list, and other found information, Defoe has successfully compiled a manual of all the names of the people who have died on the submarines, the history of each submarine, how it was lost and how it came about -- information other historians request from Defoe.

"Sometime in the early 1990s, I had a request from a man named Michael Moore who asked if I'd use this microfilm that I had to research on the 52 submarines that had been sunk in WWII," Defoe said.

Sept. 1, 1942, an attack began that eventually brought down 13 of the 40 ships accompanying Defoe's merchant ship. His first wedding anniversary was Sept. 14, and he was one of the lucky survivors who made it safely home to his wife on Dec. 4, 1942.

"I wrote my wife a letter from Scotland in August, and she got my letter the same day I got back to the states and called her on the telephone," Defoe recalled.

He retired as a captain in the Navy, the equivalent to a colonel in other armed forces, close to the highest rank achieved by a military officer. Defoe said from his first experience with the Navy, he was hooked.

"My first experience was in August 1939, and I went into Northwestern University in Evanstan, Ill. and went into the ROTC program there, and that started me. I was on a ship by the end of that year," Defoe said.

His dedication to his own service has fueled his dedication to the service of others, and for those who were not as fortunate as he, Defoe said he works hard to carry on their legacy and the legacy of what they sacrificed for their country.

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