Husband of Local Woman
Reported As Missing
Mrs. Max Davis, the former Irene Nelson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Neil Nelson of Spirit Lake, was informed Monday that her husband, Coast Guard Ensign Max Davis, has been listed as missing since Jan. 29, 1945. The message was delivered to the local woman Monday evening by a member of the Coast Guard Women’s Organization, SPARS, the personal message service being recently inaugurated for the delivery of such messages to families.
The information given Mrs. Davis state that the cargo ship on which her husband was serving in the Pacific was unaccounted for and none of the crew has been heard from. Ensign Davis has been in the Coast Guard service for about three years and has been overseas about a year. He has a son, Stephen, a year old whom he has not seen since the baby was two months old. Mrs. Davis has informed her husband’s parents, who live in Ottumwa.
Source: Adams County Free Press, Corning, Iowa, Thursday, February 08, 1945, Page 12
Our Neighbors in the Service
Spirit Lake, Ia.--Mrs. Irene Davis has been notified by the War Department that her husband, Ensign Max Davis, was killed in an explosion of an ammunition ship in the Guadalcanal harbor January 29, 1945. He had previously been reported missing. Only two men survived the explosion, Mrs. Davis has learned, and several crew members escaped because they were on shore at the time. Her husband was a gunnery officer.
Source: The Sioux City Journal, April 23, 1945
NOTE: The Spirit Lake Beacon issue of May 24, 1973, on the Memorial Day Honor Roll, stated that Ensign Max Davis was buried at sea. ~ Page 9
Max Edward Davis was born Oct. 20, 1911 to Zora E. and Mary Leona Exline Davis. He died Jan. 29, 1945 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA.*
Ensign Davis served in World War II with the U.S. Coast Guard aboard the USS Serpens and was MIA/FOD/KIA due to an “accident intrinsic to the loading process”. The loss of Serpens remains the largest single disaster ever suffered by the Coast Guard. The dead were initially buried at the Army, Navy and Marine Corps Cemetery at Guadalcanal. *Their remains were later exhumed and taken to Arlington National Cemetery where they were interred on June 15, 1949. A large monument in their honor was erected over the grave site.
Source: ancestry.com
