Robert Joseph Valentine

Everybody called him Bobby, the youngest of five children whose father was Anthony Valentine, a firefighter for the city of Camden, New Jersey. Anthony and his first wife had three boys and a girl. After a divorce he married Helen Corsen and had Bobby, who became the half brother of Charles, Elmer, Albert, and Catherine. 

Bobby attended Woodrow Wilson High School in Camden but wasn’t willing to wait until graduation to serve his country. Three days before he turned 18, on May 26, 1941 he enlisted in the Navy. After training in Newport, Rhode Island, his rating changed to Seaman, 2nd Class and he was assigned to the USS Polaris (AF-11) on December 11. 

Polaris was built in 1939 by Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, which was just down the river in Chester, Pennsylvania. Polaris was a freighter, or “stores ship,” carrying supplies and provisions to other ships or allies in foreign theaters. It made five round trips between the U.S. east coast and Reykjavik, Iceland from June of 1942 to February of 1943. During that time another rating change brought Bobby to Seaman, 1st Class and then to Storekeeper, 3rd Class.

Storekeepers kept track of supplies stored on the ship or at onshore warehouses. They would order and issue supplies, including parts, equipment, and even clothing. A big part of the job was keeping accurate records and filing reports.

On February 28, 1943, Storekeeper Valentine brought his administrative skills to the USS Yorktown, an aircraft carrier that had just been launched a month earlier. During his 19 months on board, the ship supported the Marshall Islands invasion and cleared the Marianas Islands while he became Storekeeper 2nd Class. On leave in late 1944 he came home and married a Camden native, Emma Mae Willshire. 

His next PCS (permanent change of station) was to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington in December 1944. With a rating of Storekeeper 1st Class he got a transfer in late 1945 to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard “for duty in small stores.” The Valentines welcomed a son, Richard Norman, on August 5, 1945. That was one day before the first atomic bomb was dropped and less than a month before “V-J Day” when Japan surrendered.

Although he was still serving his country, the war was finally over. It must have felt great to be home where he and his wife both grew up and to celebrate their baby’s first Christmas. Unfortunately it was the day after Christmas that Bobby was admitted to the Philadelphia Naval Hospital with a perforated colon. 

He had to have an operation, but infection and inflammation set in and ultimately caused his death on January 16, 1946. It was customary for Naval Hospital patients to be buried in the Naval Plot at Mount Moriah. Instead, the family chose a plot in Section 1 and placed this civilian marker over his grave.