By Ben Burns Grosse Point News Veterans Day 2000
From among the poignant World War II tales of scrifice, suffering and heroism recounted in honor of Veteran’s Day 2000, here is a love story from “this is a small world department”.
A few weeks back, I wrote about the trice told tale of St. Clair Shore’s Ray Laenen’s survival in a lifeboat after the Liberty ship he was sailing was torpedoed in 1945.Laenen who spent 22 days adriftbefore being rescued by a british aircraft carrier visited Germany last year and visited some of the crew of the U-boat that sent the Peter Silvester bound from San Pedro to Calcutta to the bottom.
Neal Shine, of St. Clair Shores, that consummate Irish story teller, advised me that I had only heard part of Laenen’s incredible tale, ehich was written in 1980 by a Free Press feature writer, and reprised by Neal in 1995 after he and his wife Phyllis sailed the Indian Ocean 50 years after Ray’s ship sank there.
As Paul Harvey, fames radio commentator, would say: ”Here’s the rest of the story”.
Laenen, Tom Spiccketts, a friend from Kalamazoo and a soldier names Chuck Briley from Detroit’s East side, had been standing on the deck of the Peter Silvester the night of the sinking. They were three 18 year olds youths, talking about life and death and what they would do after the war. Briley talked at great length of his plan to go home and marry his his school sweetheart Marie. He said he couldn’t wait to get back. He extolled Marie’s beauty, personality and charm and said marrying her was the first thing he was going to do. It wasn’t the first time Briley had told Laenen about his affection, but it was to be the last.
When the trio went below decks to go to their quarters, Laenen and Spicckettss turned to the left and Briley to the right to go to the showers. Fifteen minutes later, the first German torpedo hit the ship where Briley was showering and he was killed instantly.
Laaenen and Tom Tschirhart, who had been inseparable through school at St Rose’s in Detroit, got to the lifeboats. They were in the same boat, and the officer in charge decided there were too many in the boat and ordered Tschirhart transferred to another boat. Both protested the separation , but the order stood. And the next day Ray and his crewmates found themselves alone on the open ocean with no other lifeboats in sight.
After Laenen was rescued, each day he would go to the admitting area of the hospital he was recuperating at in Fremantle to learn of any news of his mate, Each day there was none. But on the 32nd day after the sinking, Ray came back to his bed to discover a tiny
Brown wrinkled figure sitting in the bed next to his. Laenen thought it was a Japanese prisoner of war in the bed next to him but when he looked close it was Tschirhart, rescued after 32 days. Tschirhart thought he was hallucinating when his friend Laenen said ”Its me Ray.” They were reunited and remain friends to this day.
For years after the war Laenen thought about trying to track down the mysterious Marie to tell her about Chuck Briley’s last conversation and advise her how much he loved her. But Laenen didn’t know her last name or where to find her.
In 1995 after Neal reprised Ray and Tschirhart story in his Free Press Column, Ray and his wife , Norma, were attending a party at St. Gertrude’s parish church in ST Clair Shores. The Laenens has been married there in 1949 and Ray had been an usher there over the years. The ST Clair Shores Goodfellows had run a picture in their fundraising newspaper for the St Gertrude’s boys basketball team from 1940 and another usher Cliff Mason was in it.
Laenen went over to kid Mason how he looked in those ancient basketball shorts of the 40’s. After joking with Mason about how he looked, Laenen turned to leave. Mason’s wife , who Ray didn’t really know reached up and caught his arm and said “Ray I always meant to ask you about that Detroit Free Press story about that ship that was torpedoed during the war in the Indian Ocean, “I was engaged to a man who lost his life in a sinking in the Indian Ocean.”
Laenen says he got a funny feeling as she spoke and answered” Oh my gosh, you’re Marie.”
She answered “Of Course, I’m Marie,” thinking Ray knew her first name.
“No I mean you are Marie, Chuck Briley’s girlfriend, the one he was going to marry,” Laenen said. “We have to sit down”
Laenen then told Marie about that last evening aboard the doomed Peter Silvester and Briley’s vow to that he would wed Marie when the war was over.
When Briley didn’t return from the war, Marie married Mason and the couple had 10 children, and now live in Harrison Township. They lived a few miles from Laenen for half a century and in fact, as teenagers, two of Laenen’s children had dated two of Marie’s and Cliff’ teens. But neither Laenen or Marie ever made the connection until the night at the St Gertrude’s Party.