The News Journal from Wilmington, Delaware • Page 19

ii i in in i JULY 3, 1994 SUNDAY NEWS JOURNAL B7 WWII Mvsterv for rieviini families CZ7 After 50 years, relatives still don't know fate of GIs i 'J i said. "I have a letter my grandmother got saying Uncle Winnie was missing in action," said Louise Poore Roemer of Port Penn, Winford Poore's niece. "They never did find out what happened to him, and they never sent a body home." Roemer's grandmother, Nellie Poore, "was very, very, upset. She was a very superstitious person. "When he went away to the war she said she would never see him again," Roemer said.

"It was a long time before she heard about his death." found." Woodrow said the D-Day remembrances have been "cathartic." Sgt. Poore is incorrectly listed in the State Archives Commission history of Delawareans in World War II as a native of Georgetown. "But he wasn't. He was from Middletown," said Helene Poore of Port Penn. "He was my ex-husband's uncle." "His mother said she got a notice that he was killed on a beach in England getting off a boat but she didn't realize there was any fighting going on," Poore By PHILMILPORD Staff reporter Unlike Pearl Harbor, where the USS Arizona Memorial marks the watery graves of more than 1,000 men, there's no floating monument in England's Lyme Bay but hundreds of Americans may be similarly entombed.

For all their families know, Staff Sgts. Clarence 0. Deakyne Jr. of Minquadale and Winford J. Poore of Middletown may be among them.

Deakyne and Poore vanished without a trace during Exercise Tiger, designed as practice for the If 10 Special to The News JournalROBERT CRAIQ Elizabeth Deakyne Woodrow discovered the truth about the death ol her brother, Sgt. Clarence Deakyne, while watching a television news special 10 years ago. for your Clover Insert In today's News Journal CO cfever MVWONarVTMM yard, had a bachelor of science degree in agriculture from the University of Delaware. He "was very upbeat. He never complained" when writing home, said Woodrow.

"Most of his letters were to his fiancee she married a few years later." Woodrow said a television news special about 10 years ago re- "My brother was first reported missing in action. We got a telegram on the 15th of May, 1944, but they never said where. Then, we got another telegram on Aug. 10, 1944, saying he had been killed In action." ELIZABETH DEAKYNE WOODROW -IUL Sgt. Winford Poore For her mother, "It's been one tough road" since the war, Wood-row said.

"Nobody knew anything. They did a graves search after the war but he was never KG? BCQI10iilZ0 'They never did find out what happened to him, and they never sent a body home." LOUISE POORE ROEMER (Bootlful) WILMINGTON 470-Z355 NSrARK 363-G315 i When termites, carpenter ants and other I pests invade, protect your home, your fami v. vour Dets! Call Western Summer Sale today for a FREE HOME INSPECTION, then save 't 7 Vl I on a new annual r' Louise Poore Penn, shown here In her Port Penn home, said It was a long time before the family heard about the death of her uncle, Sgt. Winford Poore, who was killed In "Operation Tiger." Ji plan if you do need service. Complete sat- isfaction guaranteed 4023 Kennetl Pike, Greenville, DE 9-5 PM, Saturday 10-4 PM i or your money katjjj Normandy invasion.

An estimated 749 soldiers and sailors died when German torpedo boats attacked their amphibious landing ships in the English Channel April 28, 1944. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the supreme allied commander, covered up the sinkings off Slap-ton Sands in Devon for fear that publicity would tip the Germans that the invasion was near, veterans say. Families began learning of their loved ones' fates about 10 years ago as GIs once sworn to secrecy began speaking up.

Media coverage of D-Day's 50th anniversary focused new attention on the tragedy. Following recent articles about the Slapton Sands debacle, the families of Deakyne and Poore contacted The News Journal and recalled painful memories of the war years. Neither man's body was ever found, Sinn 19JI (ttici I'U'M 655-6003 vealed the truth of what happened to her brother and his comrades. Deakyne was a supply sergeant with an Army chemical decontamination unit. Pvt.

Otavio T. George, 71, now of Elsmere, was in the same unit. "He was a really nice guy," George said of Deakyne. George said only part of the decontamination unit went to Slapton Sands for the invasion practice, and he remained behind. "Of our company of about 200 men, they sent 50 or 60," said George.

"We lost 28 of our group." "They were supposed to be taken off the LST landing ship, tank at night, but they weren't," said Deakyne's. niece, Rosemary Rutt of Woodgate, near Glasgow. "My brother was first reported missing in action. We got a telegram on the 15th of May, 1944, but they never said where," said Elizabeth Deakyne Woodrow, 79, of Frederica. "Then, we got another telegram on Aug.

10, 1944, saying he had been killed in action." "He was only overseas four months," she said. Deakyne, son of a machinist at Pusey Jones' Wilmington ship- There isn't one good reason to oppose a spirits tax increase. There are at least three. I Rich Cherry Finish. Includes: ry Dresser, Framed Mirror, Full or Queen size Headboard Steel Bedframe.

1 wmsm Tax increases on distilled spirits have not and will not provide the government with increased revenue. Despite two recent tax increases totalling 29, government tax collections are still less than they were in 1980. In 1991, after an 8 tax increase on spirits went into effect, the government reports it collected $89 million less in spirits tax revenue than it did in 1990. SOFA LOVESEAT CHAIR Traditional button-back seating with pillow accented arms A spirits tax increase would be just as much a tax on low and middle income Americans as a beer tax increase. mm r-A-t y-.

y-v 2 ItjH5 3 BRAND MANY MORE BRAND NEW '1 88 LIVING ROOMS AVAILABLE to THROUGHOUT WAREHOUSE! $498 NEW PIECES1 Despite the popular notion that what you drink depends on your economic status, POSTURE SERIES MATTRESSES TTTTl solo pssnnsasMMa maim MS INSETS i mm 31 mi mm there is no one drink of working people or of the middle class. 38 of spirits drinkers and 39 of beer drinkers come from households in which the annual income is below $30,000. Another 37 of spirits drinkers and 38 of beer drinkers come from households earning $30,000 to $60,000. More adults drink spirits than beer, and 76 of beer drinkers also drink spirits. Any tax increase on spirits would be another unfair, regressive hit on overtaxed lower-and middle-income Americans.

It is unsound public policy to increase the tax discrimination against spirits. There is the same amount of alcohol in a 12-ounce beer, a 5-ounce glass of table wine and a mixed drink with 1-14 ounces of distilled spirits. Yet typical servings of distilled spirits are taxed at twice the rate of beer and almost three times the rate of wine. Any attempt to raise spirits taxes again would send the wrong message to the public that some forms of alcohol are "softer" or "harder" than others. 3 BRASS HEADBOARDS Available in Twin-Full-Queen A King Demographic statistics from Simmons A larket Research Bureau, an independent research firm that interviews 22, 000 people yearly on consumption patterns.

fa 1-295 rrfti TO DE. MIMOKIU mXt I CHERRY IANE "Tl NATIONWIDE The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States 1250 Eye Street, N.W., Suite 900, Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 628-3544 (mm.