'Finally and justly': Brown City man who survived U-boat attack in WWII posthumously awarded Purple Heart

When a torpedo from a German U-boat struck a U.S. Coast Guard destroyer escort on March 9, 1944, Brown City native Glyone Mahaffy felt the ship shudder violently.

Minutes later, the 306-foot vessel would break in two, exposing the men on board to the frigid north Atlantic Ocean. Of the 199 once onboard, Mahaffy and just 27 others survived.

On Monday, more than 70 years since the incident and three decades since his death, Mahaffy was formally honored with a Purple Heart Medal for his role. Capt. Brad Kelly, Sector Detroit commander for the Coast Guard, described the destruction of the USS Leopold in detail before members of Mahaffy’s family at the Fort Gratiot Lighthouse, adding he thought it was an honor to “finally and justly” recognize the sailor.

“He was amidst men frantically trying to swim away from the sinking bow section,” Kelly said of Mahaffy. “He was wrestling with an inflatable life belt that was pushing his head into the 37-degree, oil-slicked water rather than keeping above it.

“He saw the stern section still floating and swam to it and pulled himself aboard. He laid on the deck until he got some feeling back in his legs, then stood to assess the situation. And when he looked over the stern, he saw a life raft with only two people in it, and he jumped for it.”

Glyone Mahaffy had been a schoolteacher in Laurel, Michigan when he joined the Coast Guard in 1942. He was assigned to the Leopold, which was deployed to protect convoys between the U.S. and Great Britain.

Survivors after the U-boat attack would wait several hours overnight until they were rescued by the USS Joyce, later being taken to Ireland to recover. After finishing out the rest of his service in Cleveland, Mahaffy returned to a farm near family in Brown City before passing away in December 1986 at age 73.

Ric Marion, Mahaffy’s nephew, said he was a great man and a fun uncle — and one who told “great ghost stories, by the way” — but that he never talked about his harrowing experience with the Leopold.

“He used to tell us, ‘I’m an operator.’ He was always into something,” he said of his Uncle Gly.

It wasn’t until reading the book “Never to Return” by Robert Nersasian that Marion said he learned the Leopold’s survivors were meant to have been awarded the Purple Heart.

So, he reached out to the author to find a contact with the Coast Guard.

“His brother was one of the guys who survived the sinking. He got to looking into it and discovered they were all awarded the Purple Heart, but it was never official,” Marion said after Monday's ceremony. “Now, it’s happening to all of the survivors of the ship. I found him and contacted him on Facebook.”

Kelly reflected on the tribute and the scene onboard the Leopold, adding he couldn’t think of “a more harrowing survival experience.”

“Her bow section eventually capsized, but the stern remained afloat,” he said. “The order to abandon ship was given and men chaotically launched lifeboats or jumped into the water.”

During his brief remarks after Kelly presented him with the award, Marion, too, reflected on his uncle’s service, pointing out the cold wind that swept through the lighthouse park on Monday.

He said the Leopold’s men “were in a lot worse shape than we are standing out here,” adding he felt it was important to highlight the service of “people who went down protecting us.”

Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.