DUANE
Duane's take
The marker in Armstrong County tells it this way, and I'll pass it along just as it stands. Now, most counties can point to their courthouse, their courthouse square, maybe a famous old rancher or two. Armstrong County can point to something rarer than all of that.
They can point to a name on a Navy destroyer. Charles H. Roan was born August 16, 1923.
By the time the world caught up to him, he was a young man in the Pacific, a private in the Marines, and the Allied Forces were pushin' into Peleliu — a small island in the western Pacific that had no intention of giving itself up easy. What Charles Roan did on that island during the invasion of Peleliu earned him the Congressional Medal of Honor. The marker doesn't linger on the details of the act itself, and maybe that silence says enough.
What it does tell you is this: he did not come home to receive it. On July 21, 1945, the medal was presented posthumously — to his mother. Her name was Lillabel Roan, and she was the Armstrong County Treasurer.
The ceremony took place right there in Claude. You think about that a moment. A county treasurer, a mother, standing in her own hometown, accepting on behalf of a son who gave everything in a place most Texans couldn't find on a map.
And still the story wasn't finished. In 1946, the United States Navy christened a destroyer with Charles Roan's name. His name on the side of a warship, cutting through the same waters where he served.
Private Roan's grave is on Peleliu Island, in the Marine Cemetery there. He was born August 16, 1923, and he died September 18, 1944, in the western Pacific — and Armstrong County has made sure nobody drivin' through Claude forgets it.
What the marker says
(Aug. 16, 1923-Sept. 18, 1944). Winner, Congressional Medal of Honor for heroism during the Allied Forces' invasion of Peleliu in the western Pacific, in World War II. On July 21, 1945, he was decorated posthumously by presentation of his medal to his mother, Armstrong County Treasurer, Mrs. Lillabel Roan, in Claude. A Navy destroyer in 1946 was christened with his name. Private Roan's grave is in the Marine Cemetery, Peleliu Island. Recorded - 1970