Herman Wilson Banks was born May 12, 1920 in the small town of Jeff, Kentucky. His father is listed as James Banks. Herman enlisted in the Navy on May 14, 1940 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He trained at Great Lakes NTS. Hermon was an Able Seaman in 1940. Muster rolls show Herman on the USS Henderson, AP-1 on September 30, 1940. He is shown as EM3C on June 23, 1942 and was increased in rate to EM2C shortly thereafter. He was transferred to to the USS Midway October 23, 1943. On October 10, 1944 Midway was re-names USS St. Lo. This flew in the face of Naval tradition, since re-naming was considered bad luck. That turned out to be the case when it sunk October 25, 1944 with a loss of about 143 Navy officers and men according to Wikipedia.
At the time of the casualty, his father James was living in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
This group consists of Banks' officially engraved Type 2 Purple Heart, wide Purple Heart ribbon, short titled presentation case, plus internet research and copies of National Archives research.
