MTSU Charlie and Hazel Daniels Veterans and Military Family Center
Roll of Honor
Durham, Lucian E.
Branch of Service: USAAFEra: WWIILocation of Burial: Tablets of the Missing at North Africa American CemeteryTown of Burial: Carthage, Tunisia
Lucian E. Durham was from Rutherford County, Tennessee. He joined the US Army Air Corps and trained in Camp Forest, TN. After completing his initial training, was assigned to the 853rd Engineer Aviation Battalion at the Army Air Base in Dyersburg, Tennessee in February 1943. During the latter days of June 1943, the battalion moved to Brookley Field in Mobile, Alabama, and then on to Camp Patrick Henry in Virginia, where weeks later they boarded Liberty ships destined for North Africa. On October 22, 1943, their ships anchored near Oran, Algeria, and soon set up camp to begin some engineer construction. On November 23, 1943, the battalion boarded the HMT Rohna, leaving port to join a convoy bound for their next duty station. The convoy was attacked by German bombers on November 26, 1943 and several ships were damaged, resulting in the captain of the HMT Rohna issuing the abandon ship order. This was the first successful “hit” of a merchant vessel at sea carrying US troops by a German remote-controlled, rocket-boosted bomb, thus giving birth to the “Missile Age”, and it resulted in the greatest loss of troops (1,015) at sea in U.S. history. Combined with the loss of ship’s crew and officers, and three Red Cross workers, more lives were lost than on the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor. Although it is possible that Technician Fifth Class Durham made it off the ship, he did not survive and is listed as missing in action as of November 27, 1943; his remains have never been recovered. Lucian E. Durham is buried or memorialized at Tablets of the Missing at North Africa American Cemetery, Carthage, Tunisia. This is an American Battle Monuments location.
