Benjamin Ralph Broiles, the date of first picture is unknown, Ralph looks very young at this time. The second picture is a close-up of the first picture. The third picture is a colorized picture made with paint. This picture is the last picture of Ralph before his death.
When the ship was brought down the Navy listed the ship and all on it as MIA, until reports of the attack were recieved by Fireman First Class Fred L. Brown, a POW who was in a Japanese interment camp.
Benjamin Ralph Broiles, Fireman First Class, U.S. Navy, and son of Mr. & Mrs. Arthur Broiles of Fontana, who was carried on the rolls of the Navy Department as Missing In Action (MIA) From March 1, 1942 to November 25, 1945 when the Navy officially declared Ralph Broiles Killed In Action (KIA).
Ralph was the first Fontana serviceman reported as missing or dead in World War II. The Veterans honored his memory by naming the Post after him.
Ashville - (Gunboat No. 21:dp. 1,575; L. 241'2" b. 41'3"; s. 12k; cpl. 162, 2 3-pdrs., 2 1-pdrs., 4 30 cal. Mg., 2 3" field guns; cl. Ashville)
The first Ashville (Gunboat No. 21), a single-screw, steel-hulled gunboat - was laid down on June 9, 1918; and commissioned on July 6, 1920.
Lt. Jacob W. Britt in command - cleared Tjilatjap on March 1, 1942, bound for Fremantle. At 0615, on March 2, Tulsa sighted a ship, and identified her as Ashville - probably the last time she was in sight of friendly forces. During the forenoon watch 3, Ashville raidioed "being attacked", some 300 miles south of Java. The Minesweeper Whippoorwill (AM-35) heard the initial disstress call and turned to head toward her reported position, some 90 miles away. When a second report specified that the ship was being attacked by a surface vessel, however, Whippoorwill's Captain, Lt. Commander C.R. Ferriter, reasoning correctly that "any surface vessel that could attack the Ashville would be to much" for his own command, ordered the minesweeper to resume her voyage to Australia.
Ashville was presumed lost and her name was struck from the Navy list on on May 8,1942, but not until after World War II did the story of her last battle emerge, from a former crewman of Heavy Cruiser Huston (CA-30), who had met, in prison camp, Fireman First Class Fred L. Brown, 18 years old, had been in the gunboat's fireroom when a Japanese surface vessel had overtaken the ship. Outgunned, Ashville soon took hits on her forecastle and bridge; many men topside were dead by the time Brown reached topside to abandon ship. Three Japanese Destroyers cruised through the waters where the gunboat's survivors remained; a sailor on board one of these threw out a rope, which Brown grasped and was hauled on board. Brown - Ashville's only survivor - ultimately died in a Japanese Prisoner-of-War camp on March 18, 1945,
Veterans of Foreign Post was voted by the veterans to be officially named Ralph Broiles Post 6563 on April 17, 1946. the Post was instituted in a ceremony at the Womans Club 2nd Sunday April 28, 1946.
Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6563 celebrated the Emerald Anniversary (55 years) April 28, 2001.
Information taken the the Department of Navy and Post records.
Benjamin Ralph Broiles, the date of first picture is unknown, Ralph looks very young at this time. The second picture is a close-up of the first picture. The third picture is a colorized picture made with paint. This picture is the last picture of Ralph before his death. 
