Chief Petty Officer Diemer served 23 years in the U. S. Navy, and was the first Spring City man reported missing in this WWII. This hero was initially reported missing in a telegram to his wife, Kathryn, and then relayed to his father. As reported in a local newspaper on Sept. 21, 1942, it was not known whether he was a prisoner of the Japanese or a casualty. His last letter home was from somewhere in the Pacific, on July 31, 1942 and he last visited his father in June of 1941. His letter stated that he was in good health and that nothing else mattered until the end of the war.
The War Department declared Chief Petty Officer Diemer officially dead as of August 10, 1943 (one year later). He was the Chief Fire Control Officer aboard the cruiser Vincennes CA-44, which was sunk by the Japanese during the battle of Savo Island in the Solomons, on August 10, 1942. Lester is remembered on the Tablets of the Missing in Action at the Manila American Cemetery at Fort Bonaficio, Phillipines.
