[From the Morning Call]
Thomas Bohn's remains still lie somewhere deep in the South China Sea, but from now on his family and friends can come to the Northampton Memorial Shrine, stand above a metal marker on the ground and remember him in the same way other families remember their departed.
The marker, dedicated Thursday in a brief, moving service under a flawless autumn sky, says this:
"In memory of Thomas Leroy Bohn, EM3, USN, WW II. May 16, 1925 - August 13, 1944. Purple Heart. USS Flier. On Eternal Patrol."
"It's like a weight's been lifted," said Donna Musselman, Bohn's niece, who raised money for the marker and arranged the service at the Palmer Township cemetery as a kind of epilogue to her uncle's life story.
While the marker isn't a proper grave, it's at least a tangible reminder of Bohn's service and sacrifice. For decades, he had been memorialized only in the hearts of his family.
The Wilson borough native was one of 86 crew members of the Flier, a submarine that sank in less than a minute after hitting a mine in the South China Sea on Aug. 13, 1944. He went down with the ship, though eight of 15 sailors who escaped the sub reached an island in the Philippines after a 17-hour swim and were later rescued.
Because the sub's mission was secret - the files on the Flier weren't declassified until 1995 - the Navy released only the barest details, and without Bohn's remains, the family couldn't hold a proper funeral.
But in February, the U.S. Navy confirmed that wreckage found in the Balabac Strait, which separates Balabac Island in the Philippines from islands in Malaysian Borneo, was the Flier.
The news brought something like closure to Bohn's survivors, including his only surviving sibling, Dorace Hoff. She was there Thursday, remembering her brother's lifelong dream to join the Navy and serve aboard a submarine.
"He was very smart," Hoff said softly. "He was the kind of person who had all A's on his tests and never had to study for them."
The band from Bohn's alma mater, Wilson Area High School, provided music: The National Anthem, "God Bless America," taps. Betty Jones Thomas, a schoolmate from Bohn's 1943 graduating class, offered memories of the young man known as "Boney" who departed school early to join the service.
A color guard from the Harold V. Knecht American Legion Post 415 performed a rifle salute, after which a Navy honor guard presented two flags to the family.
One was the 48-star flag handed to Bohn's mother six decades ago by the officers who came to her door to report the loss of her son. Terry Bohn, the son of Thomas' late brother, Karl, said the sad memento had been in a box all these years.
The Veterans Day service was a fitting tribute, added Bohn, of Effort.
"This honored all veterans, in addition to Uncle Tom," he said.
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