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Jul 2, 2009 8:23 am US/Central
Submarine Survivor Is Texas Family's Hero
JESSICA LANGDON, Wichita Falls Times Record News
WICHITA FALLS (AP) ―
The four "Ticknor Kids" are now grown up and have spread out across the county, but they came together recently in Wichita Falls to meet a man they have always considered a hero.
They never imagined they would get to know the long-ago gunner's mate whose own story is the only reason they know their father's fate.
The four grew up hearing stories their mother, Marvel, told about Clifford Kuykendall, the only sailor aboard the 80-man USS Tullibee who survived when an erratic torpedo — one of their own, he said — circled back and struck the boat, sinking it in the Pacific Ocean in late March 1944.
The children's father, George Oran Ticknor, was chief electrician's mate, making him a chief petty officer on the USS Tullibee. He was on board that fateful day. He was 33, older than many of the crew members. He had built his career in the Navy.
His widow, Marvel, and their four children, Duane, Rosemary, Joie and Ruthie, would never have known what happened had it not been for a letter that arrived in a Christmas card from Kuykendall, who lives in Wichita Falls.
Kuykendall remembers sitting down at his sister's kitchen table after he returned from the World War II. He wrote letters to 79 families, telling them what happened to the crew of the Tullibee.
"That's the least I could do," Kuykendall said, sitting at a table surrounded by George Ticknor's children, Duane Ticknor of Otis, Ore., Rosemary Snyder of Fort Collins, Colo., Joie Heller of Glendale, Ariz., and Ruthie Joyce of Philadelphia, Penn.
Decades ago when he sat down to write, he had a list of the crew members and their next of kin, and made sure each family knew the story.
"I'd write them, and fold them, and put them in an envelope," he said. At 3 cents a stamp back then, "I could afford that."
The letter meant the difference between knowing the truth and a lifetime of mystery for the Ticknor family.
"For our mother, he was a hero," Ruthie Joyce said. "Otherwise, she wouldn't have known what happened."
Throughout their lives, Marvel Ticknor, who never remarried after the death of her husband, talked to the children about "Cliff."
Only Rosemary, the oldest, who was 8 when their father died, really remembers George Ticknor.
She remembered him coming home on his last furlough.
"He was just real happy," she said. "We were just thrilled to death to get to see him."
He planned to put in his 20 years in the Navy, and he and his wife dreamed of buying a ranch together in Montana.
They know he got to meet Duane, but he never saw Ruthie, the baby. She was born in December 1943 and was only a few months old when the Tullibee went down.
Each of the siblings has been part of the American WWII Orphans Network. When Joyce got a suggestion that she do a Google search of Kuykendall's name, she entered the information and was stunned when she came across a July 2008 Times Record News article on his service and his memories of the USS Tullibee.
"I never dreamed we could find him," Joyce said. "I opened it up, and there he was. I sat at that computer with goose bumps from the top of my head to the bottoms of my feet."
She learned he had an unlisted phone number, so Duane Ticknor wrote a letter to Wichita Falls' chief of police, explaining the situation, in hopes of letting Kuykendall know the family would like to reach him.
The letter arrived at the Wichita Falls Police Department and made it to the hands of the manager of the apartment building where Kuykendall lives.
"The chief of police was looking for you,'" The manager told Kuykendall when he delivered the letter. "I'm a law-abiding citizen," Kuykendall laughed. "It has something to do with a submarine,'" the manager told him.
Kuykendall agreed to let the family have his phone number, and Joyce made one of what would turn out to be the first of many calls. There were also exchanges of letters and pictures.
Kuykendall, who was 19 in 1944, didn't know George Ticknor well, but he did remember him and recognized his face in his pictures.
When Joyce asked in March whether she and her siblings could come visit him, he agreed; and they spent several days in town last month, talking with Kuykendall and listening to his memories of the USS Tullibee and his captivity at the hands of the Japanese after he was pulled from the water.
"The only reason they plucked me out of the ocean was for intelligence," he said.
Kuykendall felt at home with the siblings; he had three sisters, himself.
"They brought me up," he said.
After he returned to Wichita Falls and wrote to the families of the 79 men who lost their lives, he heard back from many of the families. In many cases, pictures, introductions and even marriage proposals came back with the replies. Since many of the men were young, their closest relatives were mothers and sisters, not wives and children. Some of the letters were returned unread.
This is only the second visit he has had.
When he was on leave from the hospital in Norman, Okla., in the fall of 1945, the wife of an electrician's mate first class traveled with her aunt to see him and find out about what happened to her husband.
He answered a lot of questions about that over the years. The Japanese forces were the first to want to know, but he didn't tell them what he told the families.
He said the Japanese forces saw the explosion and asked him about what had happened. He said one of their own torpedoes traveled erratically, making a circle back and striking the boat, which is what they called the submarine.
Early on, Kuykendall used to lie awake at night thinking about the USS Tullibee; after a while, he knew the thoughts would consume him if he didn't force them to the back of his mind, and that's what he had to do.
But the memories of his service haven't disappeared, and he delved into books and pointed out pictures as he talked about his experiences. At 84, he still has vivid memories of his service, which also included a tour in the Korean War.
His memories and stories have been a treasure to Ticknor's family.
"There are quite a few war orphans who still don't know what happened to their dads," Duane Ticknor said.
"In all the services," Kuykendall added.
Kuykendall worked hard to survive so he would be able to come back and share the truth with the other families, Joyce said.
"His memory is just wonderful," Heller said. "It's fabulous
(© 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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