Submarine Lost

The following article by David Strange originally appeared in The Courier-Journal on 28 Aug 2013. It is archived here with additional information for your reading enjoyment.

---

Walk around the Lebanon Junction Cemetery, and you might come across a simple tombstone, maybe three feet tall, with an unusual bronze plaque mounted on the front.

Look closer at that plaque, and you will see a long list of names.

A list of eighty-seven men who were never heard from again when their submarine, the S.S. Kete, disappeared.

Here is a little of the remarkable story of that plaque and of the Lebanon Junction man who was part of that lost crew:

Paul O'Bryan Hayden was a Lebanon Junction man who had joined the Navy in 1934, serving on surface ships such as the cruiser Augusta, on which he earned the Purple Heart when a shell blew up on deck in 1937, injuring him and several others.

Hayden briefly left the service in 1938, but re-enlisted the same year, going into submarine school. He first served on a couple of older subs, the SS 45 and the SS 42. While training in torpedo school in 1943 or 44, he met a fellow submariner by the name of James Haywood, and they became friends. Shortly thereafter, Hayden was assigned to the new submarine, the Kete, also known as SS 369. His friend, James, would likely have gone with him to the same boat, but, having some extra shore leave, James stayed behind for a while and was assigned to the next completed sub.

That was a fateful choice that would eventually result in a little bronze plaque being in Lebanon Junction Cemetery.

On March 20, 1945, the Kete, heading from Calnett Straight to Midway Island, radioed headquarters with a routine weather report.

It was never heard from again.

Due at Midway on March 30, it never showed. On April 16, the sub was declared overdue, and eventually it was recorded as "all hands lost."

Now fast-forward to just a few years ago. John Hayden Newton, a nephew to Paul Hayden, was vacationing in Hawaii. By chance, he met a man by the name of James Haywood; the very man who had been friends with Uncle Paul back in the war. Because Haywood had missed being assigned to the Kete, he had survived the war.

James Haywood happened to belong to a submariner's organization. Around the year 2002, a little while after meeting his World War II friend's nephew, Haywood was involved in replacing a bronze marker at Pearl Harbor that listed those who died on the Kete. Surprisingly to him, someone mailed the older plaque to him. He immediately sent it to Paul's nephew, who in turn sent it on to Charlie Newton, another of Paul's nephews, who told me this story.

Charlie tells me that Hayden's mother, Mattie Hayden, never gave up hope that her son would somehow return, saying that she just knew one day "he would walk through that door."

Paul O'Bryan Hayden never walked through that door. Nor did any of his boat mates.

About 1946, a memorial marker was placed in the Saint Vincent De Paul Cemetery in New Hope, Nelson County, where some of Hayden's ancestors were buried. Eventually, Mattie Hayden passed away and was laid to rest next to that memorial marker of her son.

Long, long after, when the bronze plaque appeared from Pearl Harbor, a special new stone was made and set on an empty grave plat owned by the family, next to Paul Hayden's sister at Lebanon Junction. The top of the stone says,

I suppose that we will never know what happened to Paul Hayden and his mates on the Kete. Then again, maybe his mother already does.

So, when you see that small bronze plaque in the Lebanon Junction Cemetery, know that it came from Pearl Harbor.

And by the oddest chance, or by fate, it ended up in Lebanon Junction, as part of a memorial stone to Paul O'Bryan Hayden, Torpedoman's Mate First Class. Father of Sharon Joan. Son of Mattie Hayden. A local man who died with all hands somewhere in the Pacific during a terrible war.

Never heard from again, but always remembered.

Here is a list of names on those lost on the Kete.

LeRoy Albert Abts	Edward Ackerman	John Clausel Adams
John David Apking	Donald Lee Bergadine	Leonard Eugene Blodgett
Francis William Braniger	Carl Brooks	William Henry Burnside
Perry Charles Callahan	Bernard Cobrin	Hugh Mack Cole
Edward Cooper	Robert William Crowley	Charles Randolph Crutchfield
William Howard Dawson	Frederick Robert Deininger	Harold William Derrah
Helmut Otto Dietrich	Calvin Frederick Dortche	Donald Lincoln Drake
Willis Dul	Manuel Lawrence Efferson	Donald Paul Egen
Douglas Grant Fenton	Hugh French	Ben Friesen
Robert Stephan Fuller	John Francis Glynn	Fred Joseph Griswold
Joseph Henry Gunzinger	Elmer Ellsworth Gwinn	Bernard Henry Haag
Robert Arthur Hart	Glenn Edwin Hartbank	Paul O'Bryan Hayden
Earl Henderson	James Lowell Hines	James Russell Holshouser
Stanton Lee Hooper	Abraham Joseph Katz	Norbert William Kelly
Elmer Neil Kensler	Walter Ernest Kotelman	Richard Paul Kraut
Jack Lee Lasiter	Frank Litzenburger	Earl Logsdon
Billie Barton Lowery	Charles Wesley Lynn	Glenn Raymond Malko
Anthony Thomas Marsico	Frank Martini	Bernard Eugene McLendon
Grant Richard Messenger	Samuel Arnold Moccabee	Charleton L. Moore
Henry Fredrick Morrison	Archie Vernon Newton	Joseph Albert O'Brien
Mark Angello O'Connor	George Thomas Page	Clair Junior Peterson
Irving Victor Piper	Glenn Owen Price	Donald Calvin Pushee
Robert Russell Racer	Frederick Fay Reimers	Francis Albert Richards
George Joseph Schemm	Maxium Daniels Schenavar	Paul Francis Schumacher
Oliver Harry Simpson	James Irwin Snyder	Russell Henry Spikes
Jacob Granville Starr	French Lee Thomas	Gordon Ray Thompson
Keith Thorn	Peter Charles VanDam	Salomon Hernandez Villalba
James Stanley Waggoner	Russel Andrew Wallick	Floyd Stewart Walling
Joseph Allen Westphall	Gordon Weaver Wilson	Galen Irvin Woodward

---

Copyright 2013 by David Strange, Shepherdsville KY. All rights are reserved. No part of the content of this page may be included in any format in any place without the written permission of the copyright holder.

---