Database spotlights those who died at Pearl Harbor

JOHNSTOWN — The stories of the more than 2,300 American service members who died at Pearl Harbor, including Cambria County Military Hall of Fame member Navy Petty Officer 1st Class John Lipple, from Ashville, have been chronicled by Stories Behind the Stars.

The nonprofit is working to compile brief bios of all the nation’s fallen during World War II.

Don Milne, a Kentucky resident who used to live in Utah, started the process after the 75th anniversary of Japan’s attack of the Hawaii military base, which took place on Dec. 7, 1941 — 81 years ago Wednesday.

He and a group of volunteers have written stories about 2,341 service members who died at Pearl Harbor, with a few paragraphs and timelines for each person posted at fold3.com and linked to at storiesbehindthestars.org.

“That’s kind of a unique number because most reference sources say there are 2,335 people that died, but we looked them all up and got all their names, and when you count them up, there’s actually more than most sources say there were,” Milne said. “And we know it’s that number because we’ve got a story for each one of them.”

Along with Pearl Harbor, biographies are available for Utah residents who died during the war and those who lost their lives on D-Day. The group is currently working to write the life stories of the WWII dead buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

‘Ultimate sacrifice’

Approximately 1,000 volunteers who have been trained and given free access to online tools, including ancestry.com and newspapers.com, have written at least one biography.

Other volunteers, including Kathy Harmon from Franklin County, have contributed dozens or, in some cases, more than 100.

Milne said the project is “such a fascinating thing for people that have an interest to start with just a name and maybe some dates, and two or three hours later you have a 500-word story about someone who didn’t make it back from the war and made the ultimate sacrifice for the liberties and freedoms we’ve enjoyed for these years.”

Harmon, who oversees the Pennsylvania part of the project, brought her genealogy background to the work and then explored the writing and military history aspects.

“To me, it’s been a very big learning curve,” Harmon said, “but, at the same time, I think when I’m doing the research and writing these stories, it’s bringing these guys back to life.

“They had normal families here whenever they left. A lot of them died. My grandson is 19, and they were dying at his age.”

More than 22,100 total biographies have been written.

Milne wants to have stories done for each of the approximately 421,000 American service members who died during World War II — in combat or from other causes — completed in time for the 80th anniversary of the war’s official end on Sept. 2, 1945.

Less than three years remain until that self-imposed deadline in 2025.

“It’s kind of ambitious,” he said. “We’re doing it one name at a time.”

Anybody interested in joining the volunteer effort go to: donstoriesbehindthestars.org.