Private First Class (PFC) Clarence M. Buchanan (Serial No. 31126132) was born in Chicopee, Massachusetts, on 21 Apr 1914. His father, John Buchanan, was born in Scotland. His mother, Mabel Buchanan, was born in Massachusetts. Clarence had three older brothers, Leslie, John, and Earl, and a younger sister, Eliner. Clarence was working as a laborer for the Marvellum Paper Co. in Holyoke, MA, when he enlisted in the Army on 16 Jun 1942.

PFC Buchanan was a stevedore with the 231st Port Company, 492nd Port Battalion (291 Co, 492 Port BN), US Army, based in the Solomon Islands. The port battalion/port company formations were, in essence, longshoremen in uniform. Stevedore is an older term similarly used for personnel who loaded and unloaded cargo ships. The 492nd’s job was to load and unload ships that supplied the troops. One such ship was the USS Serpens.

The USS Serpens was a Liberty Ship, which was a class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Though British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost construction. Mass-produced on an unprecedented scale, the Liberty ship came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output. The Serpens was built by the California Ship Building Corporation in Wilmington, California, and named after the constellation Serpens (the Snake). The Serpens was launched on 5 Apr 1943, acquired by the US Navy on 19 Apr 1943, and commissioned as the USS Serpens, AK-97, on 28 May 1943. The Serpens was used for US Navy cargo transport and later adapted for ammunition transport. The Serpens was manned by the United States Coast Guard (USCG). The majority of the 206 crew were US Coast Guard Reserve (USCGR).

The USS Serpens was assigned to the Pacific Ocean transporting cargo across the South Pacific and South West Pacific, mostly in the rear area maintaining and supporting the logistical chain across the Pacific. On 29 Jan 1945, the Serpens was anchored off Guadalcanal at Lunga Point to take on cargo. Late that night the Serpens was taking on a cargo of depth charges and fuses. The cargo was barged out and was being loaded with the assistance of the 291 Co, 492 Port BN. The Captain of the Serpens, Lieutenant Commander (LCDR) Perry L Stinson, was ashore with Lieutenant (Lt.) John R Clark and six enlisted men performing administrative functions when the Serpens detonated. 193 US Coast Guardsmen, a single National Health Service Doctor, and 56 US Army Stevedores from the 291 Co, 492 Port BN were killed in the blast, a total of 250 men. Also, a single soldier ashore was killed by shrapnel from the explosion. Only two members of the crew on the Serpens survived. The explosion of the Serpens caused the largest single loss of life in the history of the USCG.

The two survivors were Seaman 1st Class (SN 1c) Kelsie N Kemp and SN 1c George S Kennedy, both of whom were in the Bosun’s hole in the forward part of the ship sleeping when the explosion occurred. Following the explosion, they survived by clinging to the bow of the ship, which stayed afloat long enough for them to be rescued. Both survived the rest of the war. A single soldier ashore was killed from shrapnel of the explosion.

The dead that were recovered were buried at service cemeteries on Guadalcanal. They were later exhumed and repatriated to the United States and buried in one mass grave at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington Virginia on 15 Jun 1949, in 52 caskets and 28 graves. Some 1,500 people attended the reinterment service, at which Catholic, Protestant and Jewish chaplains officiated. The U.S. Marine Corps Band sounded Taps, and a Gold Star Mother escorted by an American Legionnaire placed a white carnation on each casket.

On 16 Nov 1950, a large memorial over the grave site was erected in honor of the dead from the Serpens and the 231st Co. 492nd Port BN. The dedication service was attended by approximately 100 relatives of the victims and several hundred others. The ceremony included the U.S. Army Band ("Pershing's Own") and color guards from the Coast Guard and The Old Guard. Vice Admiral Merlin O'Neill, Commandant of the Coast Guard, gave a brief address, stating, "We cannot undo the past, but we can ensure that these men shall be respected and honored forever."

The original US Navy investigation into the explosion first attributed it to possible enemy action, but after the end of WW II a US Navy Court of Inquiry determined that the Serpens explosion was caused by an “accident intrinsic to the loading process.”

Because their deaths were not the result of enemy fire, the men of the Serpens were not eligible for Purple Hearts, but each of their families received the Victory medal and Asiatic Pacific Campaign medal posthumously

Sources:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/44435400/clarence-m-buchanan

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/22882718:6224?tid=&pid=&queryId=8999998107ff175ab36bdb180804fd99&_phsrc=xol40&_phstart=successSource

https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-10134-185713068/clarence-buchanan-in-1930-united-states-federal-census

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/195625239:2238?tid=&pid=&queryId=8999998107ff175ab36bdb180804fd99&_phsrc=xol38&_phstart=successSource

https://www.fold3.com/record/85559955/clarence-m-buchanan-wwii-army-enlistment-records

https://historyhub.history.gov/thread/3306

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/uss-serpens-coverup/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/433398768/?terms=Leo%20Henry%20Burke&match=1

https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-history/coast-guards-largest-loss-life/

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see http://www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 421,000+ of the US WWII fallen on Together We Served and Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Together We Served and Fold3/Find A Grave have smartphone apps that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery and read these stories of WWII fallen.

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Clarence M Buchanan