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Remember...Dennis Howard Bennett
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Dennis Howard Bennett was born on June 20, 1921, in Philippi, West Virginia, to Columbus and Lulu Bennett. He grew up in the small town of Philippi, living with his parents and five siblings, there and later in Weston. Perhaps due to the Great Depression, Dennis went to school only through the seventh grade. The 1940 Federal Census shows Dennis to be a "new worker" at the Pardee and Curtin Mine Company, where his father was a foreman. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1941.
On May 7, 1942, Seaman Second Class Dennis Bennett was aboard the destroyer USS Sims, which was escorting an oiler, the USS Neosho, through the Coral Sea; the flotilla was preparing to repel an impending Japanese invasion of New Guinea. The ships were attacked off the coast of Australia. Most of the crew of the Sims were originally listed as Missing in Action (MIA). Dennis Bennett's date of death is listed as a year and a day after the sinking of his vessel, the policy of the Navy at the time.
For a more detailed biography of S2c Dennis Bennett, visit his biography page, written by Wyatt Mayo and Hayden Tracey, at the West Virginia National Cemeteries Project, courtesy of the West Virginia Humanities Council: https://wvhumanities.org/wp-content/national_cemeteries/Bennett_Dennis_Howard.pdf
West Virginia Archives and History welcomes any additional information that can be provided about these veterans, including photographs, family names, letters and other relevant personal history.
