Overton, J.

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US Army War College Press (USAWC)

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters Volume 33 Number 1 Parameters Spring 2003 Article 1 3-1-2003 From the Archives: A Well-Traveled Class Ring Comes Home J. Overton Follow this and additional works at: https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters Recommended Citation Overton, J.. "From the Archives: A Well-Traveled Class Ring Comes Home." The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters 33, 1 (2003). https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters/vol33/iss1/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by USAWC Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters by an authorized editor of USAWC Press. From the ArchivesA Well-Traveled Class RingComes HomeJ. OVERTONWhile US Army Technical Sergeant James Gordon Deaton was suffering frostbiteand German shelling in surrounded Bastogne, Belgium, his high school class ringwas in the tropical Pacific Theater with the Marines. Deaton had loaned the ring, fromTennessee’s Carter High School, class of 1940, to the man who would become his brother-in-law, Lee Burnette. Before the United States entered World War II, Deaton and Burnettehad gone together to enlist in the Navy, but Deaton was turned down because of color-blindness. Burnett was assigned to the battleship Oklahoma. Sometime in 1941 he lost thering in a shipboard dice game.After the attack on Pearl Harbor and sinking of the Oklahoma, which killed415 of her crew, Deaton assumed the ring had gone down with ship, or was on the fingerof some anonymous sailor. He enlisted in the Army in 1943 and served with the 755thField Artillery Battalion throughout the European Theater. After the war, Burnette stayedin the Navy, Deaton returned to Tennessee, and the ring was mostly forgotten. But in1960, the secretary at Carter High School called Deaton to say his ring was being re-turned. Deaton thought salvage divers had recovered it from the Oklahoma wreckage orfrom a dead sailor’s body. But he then received a letter beginning, “I believe I have a ringthat belongs to you.” The letter, from Norman L. Currin of San Diego, explained howDeaton’s ring had survived the Pearl Harbor attack:I was on the USS Oklahoma as gunnery sergeant in the Marine detachment at thetime the ship was sunk. I remember picking up the ring from the deck as the shipwas sinking, sort of a reflex action, as I can’t remember just where on the ship itwas. Since Dec. 7, 1941, the ring has traveled many thousands of miles in sea-bags, trunks, and barrels, and been in and out of storage many times.For years Currin had wondered about the ring and its inscription, “J.G.D.” and“Carter High School.” In 1959 he contacted Jostens, the ring’s manufacturer, and theygave him the address of Carter High School. He wrote to the school’s secretary, who con-tacted Deaton’s mother and asked if her son was a Carter graduate. She gave Deaton’s ad-dress to Currin, and the combat veteran ring finally returned home.Sources:Bart Pittman, “Much-Traveled Class Ring Recovered after 19 Years,” Knoxville Journal (Tennessee),9 March 1960, pp. 1-2.Interviews with Mr. Deaton.

From the Archives: A Well-Traveled Class Ring Comes Home

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From the Archives: A Well-Traveled Class Ring Comes Home

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