The “Little Girl in the Photo" really happened

In the screenplay we have Charles Jefferson honoring the last words of his friend “Cookie”, a torpedo man and cook aboard the Johnston. Cookie asks Jefferson to promise he’ll go visit his estranged wife and little daughter if he dies. He then gives Jefferson a small picture of his daughter to hold for safekeeping. A few days later Cookie dies heroically launching the Johnston’s torpedoes. When Jefferson finally gets home he looks the little girl up and shows her the photo her father gave him. The touching part is the photo is now almost gone, washed clean after Jefferson floats for over fifty hours in the sea after the battle. Only the center part, containing the little girl’s face, remains.

This story is actually true but it happened to gunners mate Glenn Parkin of the USS Hoel, the other destroyer that was sunk in the battle.

The real story is this. Glenn and his buddy Phil Ackerman enlisted before Pearl Harbor and served together for three years up until Leyte Gulf. A few weeks before the battle, Phil received a letter from his wife saying she was divorcing him and, by the way, here’s a photo of a three month old baby girl which he didn’t even know he had.

Phil was broken hearted and gave Glenn the photo to hold and to this day Glenn doesn’t know or remember why. Phil died in the battle and Glenn floated, with hundreds of other men, for over fifty hours with the photo in his wallet. The picture above is a copy of what remained after the salt water etched away at the photo.

It took Glenn over forty years to find the little girl. When he did she knew nothing about her father. Glenn showed her the photo and told her all about him.. He then took her to the 1984 Hoel-Johnston survivor reunion. Glenn is still alive today at age ninety and living in Utah.