TUSCUMBIA, Ala. (AP) - Before going off to the Navy in World War II, Tuscumbia native Fred Martin Coburn hung his blue work shirt on a nail at his family’s house.
The oldest brother of a large family that included five brothers and two sisters, Coburn never would return to retrieve that shirt.
Machinist’s Mate Coburn was serving aboard the USS Grayback submarine when a Japanese plane spotted it on the surface in the Pacific Ocean and bombed it, sinking the vessel and killing Coburn and his 79 fellow sailors.
“Even though there’s nobody left in the family who remembers him, we’d all heard about his service,” his great-nephew, Clay Blankenship, said. “We’d all heard about the blue shirt.”
Blankenship said the Coburn family has a tradition of service, and when Coburn’s other brothers went off to serve either in World War II or the Korean or Vietnam wars, they ceremoniously hung up their blue work shirts alongside Coburn’s, which remained on that nail for years.
“Uncle Fred never came back, so they left it hanging up,” Blankenship said of the shirt. “Later, his brothers did the same thing.”
The family considers Blankenship a family historian, and he has researched the lives of Coburn and other family members.
He said Coburn married Doris Cantrell while on leave in 1943. Born in 1919, he was the son of Ernest and Myrtle, who owned a farm. Earnest Coburn later became a member of the road commission and state legislator. Fred Coburn’s brother, Tom, also became a state legislator.
The USS Grayback made international news last year when searchers Tim Taylor and his crew discovered it. According to news reports, it was 400 feet below sea level near the coast of Okinawa, Japan.
The discovery was part of the Lost 52 project, which is an effort to find the 52 submarines lost in World War II.
“Once they got the coordinates right, it helped them figure out where to look,” Blankenship said. “They announced it on Veterans Day.”
Aubrey Smith was friends with the Coburn brothers while growing up, and also is a World War II U.S. Navy veteran.
“Fred was a little older than I was, I think by about five years,” Smith said. “But I do remember him well because one of his brothers, Paul, was my best friend. I was at their house very often. Fred was sort of an outgoing person and real active.”
Smith said Fred Coburn had worked at the Tennessee Valley Authority during the agency’s early days. He said the Colbert County High School graduate also attended Florence State Teachers College, now the University of North Alabama, before going into the Navy.
“He went into the submarine service and I never saw him again,” Smith said. “That’s the people who were the real heroes, those who didn’t make it back. We all know some of those.”
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