Memory Grove is known as a place to photograph portraits and weddings. The Nature is lovely, but it was originally built to honor people whose lives are lost in war. I have visited for over 2o years, taken walks and photographed weddings. Each time, I walked past the names of the fallen soldiers without much thought. This time, I stopped to consider who these folks were who sacrificed their lives for war. These came from the Meditation Chapel.
“Martin W McGrath escaped into the mountains after the fall of Bataan to the Japanese and he fought with Philippine guerrillas. He was first reported missing on May 7, 1942 and officially declared dead on February 1, 1946.
He had been held as a prisoner of war and was among the many POWs on the Bataan Death March. He was able to escape and was last seen near Lubao, Pampanga Province. His actual date of death is unknown.” https://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=117127
Bataan Death March : The surrendered Filipinos and Americans soon were rounded up by the Japanese and forced to march some 65 miles from Mariveles, on the southern end of the Bataan Peninsula, to San Fernando. The men were divided into groups of approximately 100, and the march typically took each group around five days to complete. The exact figures are unknown, but it is believed that thousands of troops died because of the brutality of their captors, who starved and beat the marchers, and bayoneted those too weak to walk. Survivors were taken by rail from San Fernando to prisoner-of-war camps, where thousands more died from disease, mistreatment and starvation.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bataan-death-march
“Courtney Rogers Draper, the first son of Delbert Morley Draper and Frances Mary Rogers Draper, was born on 5 April 1913 in Salt Lake City. A former student reporter for The Salt Lake Tribune, Draper attended Stewart training and East high school and was graduated from the University of Utah and George Washington University, Washington, D. C., where he received his LLB degree.
An auditor for the U. S. accounting department while attending George Washington University, he was secretary to Gen. Hugh S. Johnson during N R A days.
A member of the Utah bar and junior bar, he practiced law in Washington, D. C. and Utah. He was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity and Salt Lake City Junior Chamber of Commerce. A reserve officer in the U. S. army, he was called to active service July 1, 1941. Transferred to the Philippine Islands Aug. 1, 1941, he was stationed at Fort Stotsenberg and Clark field, and was present during the first bombing of the latter field. Transferred to Mindanao before the fall of Corregidor, he served there until ordered to surrender.
As a prisoner of the Japanese he was interned until June, 1944 and was then transferred to Cabanatuan, Bilibid. He was being transferred again aboard the Enoura Maru, one of the infamous Hell Ships, when the transport was severely damaged in Takao Harbor, Formosa (now Taiwan) by U.S. Navy aircraft from the USS Hornet. At the time, military officials were unaware that POW's were packed like sardines in these unmarked ships, and thousands lost their lives.
At the time of his death he had three sisters and a brother, as well as one sister who preceded him in death.
His remains have to date not been identified, but may be interred at the Punch Bowl in Hawaii. There is a memorial plaque honoring him in Memory Grove park, Salt Lake City, Utah.∼During World War II, he died aboard a Japanese "Hell Ship" transport ship that was sunk in the Pacific on December 15, 1944”
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/25475308/courtney-rogers-draper
“Sammy Pershing Boothe was born in Ogden, Utah, June 25, 1918, a son of Jennie Alvord and Morris Artemus Boothe. He graduated from Evanston High School, winning the valedictorian and Best-All-Around Boy awards (1936). He attended the University of Wyoming on scholarship for one year and Military Preparatory School in Long Beach, California for one year. He received an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland and graduated from there December, 1941 with the rank of Ensign. While attending the academy, he was a starring player on the Navy football team.
He served in World War II in the South Pacific and Alaskan campaigns aboard the U.S.S. Louisville. In November 1943 he was assigned to flight training at Dallas, Texas. Upon receiving his Navy wings he was assigned to special night fighter training at Vero Beach, Florida. Lt. Boothe was killed April 10, 1945 when his plane went dowon in the Atlantic Ocean. Since the body was never recovered, a marker has been placed in Memory Grove in Salt Lake City, Utah in the plot of ground surrounding Meditation Chapel dedicated to those Utah boys with no known graves. Pior to his death, he had advanced to the rank of Lieutenant, Senior Grade. Sammy was an Elder and a devout Latter-day Saint.
Sammy and Mary had a son four months before Sammy died.”
https://www.geni.com/people/Sammy-Boothe/6000000031576643450
I chose not to disturb the leaves on top of this monument.
This monument sat in the back, overgrown with foliage. I was unable to find much information on Dahyle aside from this.
Enlisted: July 1940 Age 18
1943 on 16 July - Missing in Action in the Pacific near Solomon Islands
Reported on 13 Sep 1943
Awarded the Silver Star posthumously on 04 Aug 1945
Plane Crash was later found and his file was updated with this in 1946:
Killed off the coast of Villa Lavella, Solomon Islands on 16 Jul 1943
and died a day after his plane crashed.
Many of these men were drafted and lost their lives in war. This park honors Utahans and as such, doesn’t honor the civilians overseas who lost their lives. After learning about the individual men, I couldn’t help but wonder what was lost and we’ll never know.
Why do we continue to fight wars and kill each other? Why do we find it necessary to cause destruction to others and our planet in a way which makes human life near impossible? How much do humans actually value other human lives?
These men gave their lives and all that is left of them is a monument in a beautiful park with only their name, birth and death dates, and location where they perished. Is that enough? What would be enough?
Perhaps the only thing that could be enough is if we stopped these actions. Human nature may never allow us to do so.
I honor the lives of these soldiers, including the many I didn’t take the time to research. May they Rest In Peace and know a stranger in Salt Lake City is thinking about them tonight.
