Say a Word for Them — Lt. Roy Welbon

In November 1943, on a beach in Mindanao, 1st Lt. Roy E. Welbon watched his wife Helen board the submarine USS Narwhal. She was a Red Cross worker. He was the communications officer for Col. Wendell Fertig’s guerrilla force. He insisted she leave. He stayed.
Two months later, on 24 January 1944, a Japanese patrol hit the radio station at Baroy in Lanao del Norte. Roy was killed while trying to move the equipment. His men recovered his body and buried him with full military honors under a small white cross on the plaza in front of Father Thibault’s church. After the war the grave was lost. His name remains on the Tablets of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery.
This song is written from Helen’s perspective — the woman who left on the submarine and spent the rest of her life carrying the memory of the man who chose to stay.
Say a word for the ones who stayed too long.
Full story, research, and podcast episodes:StoriesOfSacrifice.org
Song by John Bea.Artwork created for this project.
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