Feature Story

Story and photos by Petty Officer 2nd Class Henry G. Dunphy.

Burial at sea is a tradition that can be traced back as long ago as people have gone to sea. During wartime, service members who died aboard ships were buried at sea out of necessity.  For one family, this age-old tradition was a way to honor their parents’ final wish and bring closure for themselves.

The ashes of retired Navy Chief Warrant Officer Milton Strouse, who passed away in 2003, and his wife Josephine, who passed away in April of this year, were reunited and scattered off the coast of San Diego during a ceremony aboard Coast Guard Cutter Petrel June 10, 2011.

“My father loved the sea and loved serving in the Navy,” said David Strouse, Milton’s son.  “He really had saltwater in his veins. It was always his wish to be buried at sea.”

Milton Strouse served as a shipfitter in the Navy from 1936 to 1958, achieving the rank of chief warrant officer. 

Not only did he serve bravely, he also suffered greatly. Early in World War II, Strouse’s ship, the U.S.S. Pope, was sunk during a battle in the Java Sea with 101 people aboard. After 59 hours in the water, 27 survivors were picked up by a Japanese destroyer. The American sailors were interned at a prisoner-of-war camp in the Dutch East Indies, where Strouse was made an example of by the guards. He was accused of smuggling a newspaper into the camp and subjected to solitary confinement in a 4-foot by four-foot cell and endured regular beatings with belts and clubs for seven days.

Strouse and the other prisoners were later moved to a work camp in Japan, where they were forced to labor in coal mines until the end of the war, more than 42 months later.

Despite these hardships, Strouse continued on in his military career after his release from the prison camp.

“He spoke often of his time in the Navy, but didn’t talk about being a POW until the last few years of his life,” Susan Seevers, one of Milton and Josephine's daughters.

Some of this love of sea-going life rubbed off on Strouse’s son, David, who served as a quartermaster in the Coast Guard from 1984 to 1988.

Milton met Josephine in Pensacola, Fla., where she was working as a telephone operator for the Navy. After a brief courtship, they were married Dec. 26, 1954. Seevers remembers her father telling a story about his wedding day in which he forgot to buy the cake until the day of the ceremony. He rushed to a local bakery and purchased a cake, but had to scrape the words “Happy Birthday” off the frosting.

Milton had been transferred to San Diego in 1954, and after the marriage returned to his duty station there. Josephine, along with her mother and sister, moved across the country so she could be with her new husband. They rented a series of houses in the San Diego area, and after Milton retired from the Navy, built their dream home on the side of Mount Helix in El Cajon, Calif.

“My parents were very much in love their whole lives,” said Seevers, “My mother adored my dad, and he lived for her.”

Seevers said her mother did not share her husband’s enthusiasm for the sea.

“The funny part of this is that my mother hated the water,” she said.  “She would go to the beach with my dad, but would not go near the water even though he loved it.”

Seevers, who helped care for her parents during the later part of their lives, said they were an extremely close family.  

“They were a big part of my life,” she said, “we [the Seevers family] had dinner with them every night.”

Milton Strouse passed away in 2003. As the family discussed the funeral arrangements for his burial at sea, Josephine decided that she wanted to wait until she passed away as well and have their ashes scattered together.  Milton’s remains were placed in a chest with intertwined wedding rings carved into the wood and the inscription “Until we meet again” to symbolize the strong religious belief that they both held, as well as being scattered together in their final resting place.

Josephine passed away in April, 2011, and the couple could be reunited.

David Strouse, who remembered performing burial at sea ceremonies while serving in the Coast Guard, contacted Sector San Diego with the request and the ceremony was planned for June 10, 2011.

"It's a privilege to honor those who have courageously served in times of war and grant them their last wish for a burial at sea," said Lt. j.g. Erin Slycord, one of the Coast Guard members who helped coordinate the ceremony.

The ceremony was held on the forecastle of the Petrel, under an overcast sky. Lt. Cmdr. Daniel Owens, the chaplain from Sector San Diego, offered remarks and a prayer. The ship’s crew snapped to attention and saluted as Master Chief Petty Officer Peter Desillier scattered Milton and Josephine Strouses’ ashes into the Pacific Ocean. Their three children, two grandchildren and two family friends who attended then placed yellow carnations in the water and paused to say farewell to their loved ones.

“It is beyond what you can comprehend how much this means to us,” David Strouse said. “To fulfill the final wish of our parents and be present for the ceremony was immensely important.”

“It was definitely her wish to have them together and her everlasting love for him that made her finally ‘get in’ the ocean,” Seevers said of her mother.