Clyde Milton Reasoner

Clyde Reasoner, ca. 1944

Des Moines Register, 1949

Quick Facts

Significance:

US Navy Sailor, World War II, KIA

Place of Birth:

Dows, Iowa

Date of Birth:

April 2, 1927

Place of Death:

Off the Southwestern Coast of Okinawa

Date of Death:

July 30, 1945

Place of Burial:

Des Moines, Iowa

Cemetery Name:

Glendale Cemetery

Clyde Milton Reasoner was born in Dows, Iowa, on April 3, 1927 and moved to Des Moines as a teenager. He had one brother and two sisters. Before joining the Navy, Clyde had completed two years of high school and was working as a baker in the local Atlantic & Pacific grocery store. His parents were divorced and his mom, Violet Winifred Reasoner, had custody of the three minor children: Clyde, Shirley and George. Clyde enlisted on November 14, 1944. His mother signed a consent form, because he was only 17 years old.¹ His salesman father, who had left the family, was Clyde’s link to anything regarding the Navy since he had served in a Naval Hospital in San Francisco during World War I.

Clyde was sent to the Navy Training Center in Great Lakes, Illionois. There he learned firefighting skills, qualified as a Rifle Marksman, and was promoted to seaman 2nd class (S2c). He spent a few weeks at the Training and Distribution Center (TADCEN) in Shoemaker, California. It is unknown where he celebrated his 18th birthday on April 3, 1945, but it seems likely he was on a ship heading to the South Pacific. We do know that on April 26th S2c Reasoner reported for duty aboard USS Cassin Young (DD-793). The ship had recently arrived in Ulithi Harbor, in the Caroline Islands, for repairs after being hit by a kamikaze earlier in the month.

During his three months on board USS Cassin Young, S2c Reasoner traveled through much of the South Pacific, seeing the islands of Ulithi, Okinawa, Guam and Saipan. He also had many new experiences; ranging from the boredom of patrolling in calm seas, training maneuvers, escort, screening and picket duties, to the terror of outrunning a typhoon, several kamikaze attacks, and rescuing survivors from the USS Callaghan (DD-792, a sister Fletcher-class destroyer). Shipmate Ralph Rhoads described in his diary the atmosphere into which S2c Reasoner joined the crew:

May 15, 1945 […] the [Japanese] are still using a lot of suicide planes up at Okinawa and that is probably where we will be headed for. We must have between 50 and 75 destroyers out of commission now due to suicide planes. A lot of these will never be very good again. Nearly everyone that gets hit, 1/3 of the crew gets killed or wounded. Two-to-one odds for your life isn’t very high.²

On the morning of July 28, 1945, USS Cassin Young returned to picket duty off the coast of Okinawa. The following morning kamikazes attacked nearby ships, sinking USS Callaghan. In the early morning hours of July 30, 1945, Cassin Young was hit by a kamikaze for a second time. This caused an explosion in the forward boiler room, killing the entire watch on duty. Twenty-two sailors lost their lives on USS Cassin Young, the youngest was 18-year-old S2c Clyde Milton Reasoner.

S2c Reasoner, USNR, was buried in the US Military Cemetery on Zamami Shima, Ryuku Retto. In 1949 Clyde Milton Reasoner was reinterred in Glendale Cemetery, Des Moines, Iowa.

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Footnotes

1. Official Military Personnel File of Clyde Milton Reasoner, National Personnel Records Center, National Archives and Records Administration, St. Louis, MO.
2. Ralph Samuel Rhoads USS Cassin Young (DD-793) A Sailor’s War Diary (2017), entry for May 15, 1945