Comments/Citation:
Arthur Castles Beeman was born December 13, 1912 in Memphis, Shelby county, Tennessee, son of Arthur Lewis and Mattie Rebecca (Carr) Beeman. He had an older brother and a younger sister. His mother died in 1919, and by 1930 he was living with his father and siblings in Clarksdale, Coahoma county, Mississippi, where his father worked as a building contractor. Prior to Joining the service he lived in Blytheville, Arkansas.
Before 1930, at age 17, he joined the Navy and was first attached to the 5th Marine Regiment. On December 21, 1935 he married Doris Edith Corlett in Belair, Maryland. His son, Lawrence Eugene, was born in 1941.
He served aboard USS Wyoming in 1936, re-enlisting as a Pharmacist’s Mate 1st class, on November 18, 1936 at Portsmouth, Virginia.
As a Chief Pharmacist’s Mate, he reported aboard USS Amberjack (SS-219), for her commissioning on June 19, 1942. Her first patrol was made in the Shortland-Rabaul-Buka area, as her last was. During this first patrol conducted during the last half of September and the first half of October 1942, she sank a freighter, a transport and a large tanker of 19,600 tons. In addition she damaged a freighter and a transport, and made a valuable reconnaissance of several islands in her area. The second patrol of this vessel was in the area west of Bougainville. Although several attacks were made, no damage was done to the enemy.
Departing Brisbane on 26 January 1943, Amberjack started her third war patrol in the Solomons area. On 29 January she was directed to pass close to Tetipari Island and then proceed to the northwest and patrol the approaches to Shortland Basin. Orders were radioed on 1 February for her to move north and patrol the western approaches to Buka Passage. Having complied with these orders, Amberjack made her first radio report, on 3 February, telling of contact with an enemy submarine 14 miles southeast of Treasury Island on 1 February, and of sinking a two-masted schooner by gunfire twenty miles from Buka the afternoon of 3 February 1943. At this time she was ordered to move south along the Buka-Shortland traffic lane and patrol east of Vella Lavella Island.
The last radio transmission received from Amberjack was made on 14 February 1943. She related having been forced down the night before by two destroyers, and that she had recovered from the water and taken prisoner an enemy aviator on 13 February. She was ordered north of Latitude 6°-30'S, and told to keep hunting for Rabaul traffic.
All further messages to Amberjack remained unanswered, and when, by March 10, she had failed to make her routine report estimating the time of her arrival at base, she was ordered to do so. No reply was received, and she was reported as presumed lost on 22 March 1943.
CPhM Arthur C. Beeman was among the men listed as missing in action and later declared dead. He was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart.
Arthur C. Beeman’s name appears on the Tablets of the Missing, Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, Manila, Philippines.
The Enlisted Club on the (former) U.S. Submarine Base in Pearl Harbor was named Beeman Center in his memory.
References:
1920; Census Place: Clarksdale, Coahoma, Mississippi; Page: 12A; Enumeration District: 37
1930; Census Place: Norfolk, Norfolk (Independent City), VA; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 0100
Ancestry.com. North Carolina, U.S., Marriage Records, 1741-2011
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56766708/arthur-castles-beeman
Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, U.S., Veteran Compensation Application Files, WWII, 1950-1966
Ancestry.com. U.S., Navy Casualties Books, 1776-1941
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Amberjack_(SS-219)
https://submarinememorial.org/lostboatsfinished/ss219amberjack.html
Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Navy Muster Rolls, 1938-1949
This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen saved on Together We Served and Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smartphone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.
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