Surnames: HORN SLONIKER HOOPER WEEKS KOROGHLANIAN

----Source: Tribune-Record-Gleaner (Clark County, Wis.) 04/18/1984

Horn, Merlyn Elmer (3 JUN 1921 - 12 APR 1984)

Merlyn Elmer Horn, son of Elmer and Floy (Sloniker) Horn, was orn on June 3, 1921 in the Town of Sherman, Clark County. He completed the eighth grade at Veefkind School and graduated from Greenwood High School. He was active in the Veefkind Silver Star 4-H Club.

He married Geneva Hooper of Rockland, Maine, on Oct. 11, 1941.

Merlyn joined the U.S. Navy in Nov. 1940 and during the next twenty years saw much of the world. He was sent to the Henry Ford Apprentice School, Dearborn, Mich., where upon completing the training, he was sent to the battleship, U.S.S. Arkansas. While on the U.S.S. Arkansas, the ship covered a meeting on the coast of Canada, of Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt. The ship also went hunting for German Battleships from Norway that escaped the English.

In April 1942, Merlyn was sent to Charleston, S.C. to the U.S.S. Beatty D.D. 640, commissioned May 7, 1942. Duty included the invasion of Africa at Morocco and spending Christmas in Casablanca Harbor, night air raids by German planes, invasion of Burrize and of Sicily. All ship personnel received the Third Battle Star plus Army Salutations for saving the Army from being blown back to the sea plus picking up airplane crews out of the water. The U.S.S. Beatty had various submarine contacts sank a German submarine at the entrance to Cape Cod Canal, sunk a French Vichy submarine off Norfolk that claimed to be French but acted as a German contact and had sunk an American ship outside the harbor of Norfolk. Merlyn was in the hospital in Charleston when the first German prisoners were brought in from the submarine that the U.S. Coast Guard blew up and took prisoners. The U.S. had no place to intern them so they were sent to Canada.

On Jan. 17, 1944, the U.S.S. Cushing, D.D. 797 was commissioned and went to the Pacific Ocean to fight the Japanese. This included the invasion of the Marshall and Marianna Islands and the Philippines. The Japanese fleet was chased to their homeland where they were destroyed.

In 1945, he went to the U.S.S. Henderson, D.D. 785 the ship had engineering trouble plus one of the submarines came up in screws. He was transferred to the U.S. Sierra, A.D. 18 in 1946. This was a submarine tender, stationed in Singtsow, China.

He left China for a discharge Nov. 1946, with the 4th Marines on the U.S. Breckenridge Army Transport for Norfolk. This was the first time since the Boxer Rebellion that this Marine Corps had left China.

Merlyn re-enlisted Jan. 1947 and was sent to the U.S.S. Orian A.S. 18 Submarine Tender at Portsmouth, N.H. where the ship was being overhauled. He spent one and one-half years in Panama, where his family was able to join him. Ten years were spent in the Submarine Force with five on the Orion and five on the Submarine Base, New London, CN.

In 1957, the U.S.S. Bigelow D. D. 942 was commissioned and Merlyn retired from the U.S. Navy in Aug. 1960, with the rank of Chief Petty Officer.

He received medical retirement from the U.S. Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth, VA on April 21, 1982, after 17 years of service there.

Merlyn died of cancer on April 12, 1984, at the Naval Hospital, Portsmouth, Virginia. He was buried on April 17, 1984, in the National Cemetery, Hampton, Virginia.

He is survived by his wife, Geneva, who resides at 8235 McCloy Road, Norfolk, VA, 23505 one son, Merlyn Jr. and a daughter, Mrs. Cheryl Weeks, both of Norfolk four grandchildren and two sisters, Fern M. Horn and Mrs. Sylvia (Harry) Koroghlanian, both of Milwaukee.