Earl E. Hinman, 21, Missing In Action, Navy Tells Parents
News that a third Muscatine county youth may have now made the supreme sacrifice in the service of his country brought sorrow over the weekend to the Clarence Hinman family, rural route 6, of Fruitland township.
Enlisted in 1938.
Earl entered the Navy on July 12, 1938, and was serving in the Pacific theater of war.
He was born March 25, 1920, in Rock Island county, Ill., and had resided in Muscatine county for about 20 years, receiving his education in the rural schools here.
Two brothers, Clifford, of near Letts, and Lyle, at home, and three sisters, Mrs. Alberta Fuhlman of Muscatine and Helen and Donna, at home, together with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Hinman, are his nearest living relatives.
The Hinman youth is the third from this county to be considered missing in action with the Navy.
Source: Muscatine Journal and News-Tribune, March 16, 1942 (photo included)
NAVY CASUALTY LISTS HAS NAMES OF LOCAL YOUTHS
Another Muscatine county youth, in service with the Navy, Earl E. Hinman, of Muscatine Island, has been listed by the Navy department as “missing in action,” but no further word as to his fate has been received.
Source: Muscatine Journal and News-Tribune, May 5, 1942
Navy Issues First “Casualty” Lists
The Navy’s first official casualty list, issued on the 5th, contained the names of Arthur Anthony Bersch and David Alonzo Leedy.
This was the first of a series of “official reports” which came to next of kin during the month.
Another Navy casualty list on the 15th listed as “missing in action” Earl Hinman, son of Mr. and Mrs. C. C. Hinman of Muscatine Island;
Source: Muscatine Journal and News-Tribune, Dec. 30, 1942
Number From Area Included On Missing Lists; Safety of Some Subsequently Reported
“Missing in action.”
Official notifications from the war and navy departments, bearing this saddening information about a loved one, have come to a number of homes in this area since the Pearl Harbor attack back in the waning days of 1941.
For some relatives, this opening sentence was followed by happier information in the course of time. For others, where no further details have been received, only the hope will come, revealing the safety of a loved one.
For, in a number of cases, some of the men who were reported as missing in action were later reported to have rejoined their combat units, or rescued by comrades. Others, subsequent messages related, were being held prisoners by enemy countries and have communicated with relatives.
Others, about whom therir commanders have had no additional information to relate, have, after an interval, been declared officially to have been killed in action.
And, for the parents and relatives of some, the suspense of waiting has continued month after month, as they clung to the hope that no news may be good news and that some day, soon if possible, a message may clear, reporting that the absent member is alive and well.
From official lists issued at intervals, augmented in instances by information obtained from relatives and friends, the following information relative to those from this area who have been reported missing in action was obtained.
Earl E. Hinman, 21, seaman first class, has been missing in action with the U. S. Navy since March, 1942, when official word was received by relatives here. He is the son of Mrs. Clarence Hinman of rural route 6, Fruitland township. No further word has been received here in all that time, except that no trace of the ship on which he had been serving was found.
Hinman entered the Navy on July 12, 1938, and was serving in the Pacific theater of war.
Source: Muscatine Journal and News-Tribune, December 30, 1943 (photo included)
LIST OF MISSING IN ACTION GREW IN 1944
Among those from this area who have been listed as missing in action in official dispatches to next of kin, and upon casualty lists of the armed services, are:
EARL E. HINMAN—Son of Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Hinman, route 6, Earl E. Hinman, was reported as missing in action with the U. S. Navy in the Pacific in March, 1942. He was ranked as a seaman first class.
Source: Muscatine Journal and News-Tribune, Friday, December 29, 1944
Earl Edward Hinman was born Mar. 25, 1920 to Clarence Clifford and Flava Agatha Shoppa Hinman. He died Dec. 15, 1945/FOD. He was reported missing Feb. 28, 1942.
Coxswain Hinman is memorialized at the Walls of the Missing, Manila American Cemetery and was awarded the Purple Heart.
Source: ancestry.com; abmc.gov
