Appalachian Figures
Introduction
In the hills of Knott County, Kentucky, the name McCoy Reynolds still carries a quiet weight. A farm boy from Pippa Passes with a home address in Mallie, Reynolds enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve in January 1942. Before his first year in uniform ended, he was dead on Guadalcanal and posthumously recognized for gallantry. Two years later a Navy warship, USS McCoy Reynolds (DE-440), went to sea with his mother as its sponsor. His story links an Appalachian family to the Pacific War through one Marine’s courage and a destroyer escort’s hard service.
A Knott County Marine
Born 23 September 1916, McCoy Reynolds grew up in a Knott County household headed by Jonas Tilden Reynolds and Rosabelle Short. He enlisted at Louisville on 23 January 1942, part of the rush of Kentuckians who joined after Pearl Harbor. Contemporary Marine personnel summaries and later compiled biographies agree on those basics, including his Knott County roots.
Reynolds reached the South Pacific during the brutal fighting for Guadalcanal. On 25 November 1942 he was killed near Henderson Field while moving under fire with fellow Marines of the 2d Marine Division. The Navy’s official ship history confirms the date, place, and that his actions destroyed a Japanese machine-gun position.
Valor at Guadalcanal
The Military Times Hall of Valor preserves the substance of his Silver Star recognition: advancing under heavy fire, closing on an enemy emplacement to grenade range, then covering his squad before he was struck down by a sniper. The entry lists him as a Private in the 8th Marines, Reinforced, on 25 November 1942. This is consistent with the official Navy summary and other wartime records.
Kentucky’s wartime casualty roll places Reynolds among the Commonwealth’s Navy and Marine dead. That federally compiled list, created after the war by the Bureau of Naval Personnel, tabulates each state’s combat deaths and identifies next of kin, which helps researchers connect these national records back to specific Kentucky families.
“Christened by the Marines’ mothers”
When the destroyer escort McCoy Reynolds was launched at Federal Shipbuilding in Kearny, New Jersey, on 22 February 1944, the Marine Corps’ official paper covered the ceremony. The Marine Corps Chevron noted that the ship was “christened by the Marines’ mothers,” naming Reynolds’s sponsor as Mrs. Tilden Reynolds of Mallie, Kentucky, alongside Mrs. John J. Gilligan, mother of the namesake of DE-508. That public moment put Knott County on a wartime stage and linked a family cemetery in Mallie to a shipyard on the Passaic River.
The concise Navy entry in Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships adds the yard, dates, sponsor, and commissioning details that frame the ship’s service life: laid down 18 November 1943, launched 22 February 1944, sponsored by Mrs. Tilden Reynolds, and commissioned 2 May 1944.
Service at Sea
After shakedown, DE-440 escorted carriers and convoys through 1944, screened bombardments at Peleliu, and hunted submarines in the Palaus. With sister escorts she shared credit for sinking Japanese submarine I-37 off Kossol Roads in November 1944. She earned four battle stars in World War II, later added a Korean War star, and eventually served as NRP Corte Real (F-334) with Portugal. These movements and honors are documented in the Navy’s official ship history and by postal-history compilers who track the ship’s postmarks and name record.
What She Looked Like
Period photographs show McCoy Reynolds wearing the eye-catching World War II “dazzle” camouflage known as Measure 31, Design 2C, photographed at New York on 3 July 1944. The camouflage record preserves exact National Archives still numbers for those photos (for example, BS 71704 and BS 71706), which gives researchers a direct archival trail back to the original negatives.
Resting Place and Memory in Kentucky
Reynolds’s burial is recorded at the Joseph & Queentina Reynolds Cemetery in Mallie, a small family cemetery in Knott County. Compiled grave indexes list his birth and death dates and confirm the local site that today anchors family memory to the national story.
Doing the Work in the Records
For those who want to go deeper, the Marine Corps muster rolls are the core primary series that place Private Reynolds in his training and field units month by month. The National Archives guide explains the rolls and how to access the digitized microfilm that covers the World War II years. Using those rolls together with the state casualty volumes and the Silver Star entry lets you build an exact, document-based service timeline.
Why it Matters
Appalachia sent sons and daughters in large numbers during World War II. Some returned with ribbons, some with scars, and some did not return at all. Private McCoy Reynolds’s name traveled across the Pacific on a steel hull in the hope that the men who followed him to sea would come home. That hope and that name began in Knott County.
Sources & Further Reading
Marine Corps Chevron, 4 March 1944, coverage of the twin launchings that included USS McCOY REYNOLDS and named Mrs. Tilden Reynolds of Mallie, Ky. as sponsor. Issue PDF view. historicperiodicals.princeton.edu
State Summary of War Casualties, Kentucky (Department of the Navy, Bureau of Naval Personnel, 1946). NARA index page with page images and descriptive information. National Archives
U.S. Navy WWII Dazzle Camouflage record for DE-440, listing Measure 31/2C photographs and National Archives still numbers BS 71703, 71704, 71705, 71706. usndazzle.com
Marine Corps Muster Rolls research guide, National Archives (RG-127), describing content and online access to the digitized rolls that cover World War II. National Archives
DANFS (official Navy history), “McCoy Reynolds (DE-440),” biographical summary of Private Reynolds and full ship history including launch, sponsorship, operations, and battle stars; HyperWar mirror. Ibiblio
Military Times, Hall of Valor, “McCoy Reynolds,” Silver Star entry summarizing actions on Guadalcanal, unit identification, and date of action. Hall of Valor
Naval Cover Museum, “MCCOY REYNOLDS DE-440,” compact service summary, commissioning dates, and namesake note. navalcovermuseum.org
Interment.net, “Veterans Buried in Kentucky Cemeteries,” entry for Reynolds, McCoy, giving dates and burial at Joseph & Queentina Reynolds Cemetery, Mallie, KY. Interment
Traces of War, “Reynolds, McCoy,” concise biographical profile listing parents, enlistment at Louisville, and awards. Use with primary sources above for verification. Traces of War