Lost at Sea

The oldest son of Aaron Parx and Jessie Fulford Bell, Warren Aaron Bell enlisted in the US Navy after the start of WWII. His mother was the first cousin of my grandfather Tink Fulford.

He had spent his life on the water, working in his father's fishing business in Cortez. In fact his family had been making their living on the water for several generations. He probably thought the Navy was a good fit since he would be on the water but it didn't work out that way.

He was a Seaman Second Class aboard a ship in the North Atlantic on January 2, 1944 when he was lost at sea. I don't know if he was lost during a battle or just some kind of accident.

His body was never recovered. Warren's name was added to the memorial for MIAs in the North Africa American Cemetery in Tunisia. His parents also put a memorial for him in Manasota cemetery in Oneco, Florida.

The Tablets of the Missing at the cemetery consists of a wall 364 feet long, of local Nahli limestone, with local Gathouna limestone copings.

Built into it are panels of Trani limestone imported from Italy on which are inscribed the names and particulars of 3,724 of the Missing:

United States Army and Army Air Forces…..….3,095
United States Navy.................................................615
United States Coast Guard.......................................14

These men gave their lives in the service of their Country; but their remains either were not identified or they were lost or buried at sea in the waters surrounding the African continent. They include men from all of the States except Hawaii and from the District of Columbia.
Without confirmed information, a War Department Administrative Review Board established the official date of death of those commemorated on the Tablets of Missing as one year and a day from the date on which the individual was in Missing in Action status.

At each end of the Tablets is this inscription:

HERE ARE RECORDED THE NAMES OF AMERICANS WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THE SERVICE OF THEIR COUNTRY AND WHO SLEEP IN UNKNOWN GRAVES 1941-45 * INTO THY HANDS O LORD. (from the cemetery web page)