OK, now we're getting somewhere.
As far as I can tell SS ALBERT A MICHELSON never made a voyage to Murmansk. She does not appear in a list of ships that went to Murmansk as found at this web page: http://usmm.org/murmanskships.html.
However, SS DONALD W BAIN does appear on the same list. So I made a search of Ancestry.com, a subscription website that among other things lists crewmen of ships arriving in certain U.S. ports of entry. Sure enough, I found a Gerald F. Burr, seaman 1/c, serial number 868-51-06, aboard DONALD W BAIN upon her arrival in New York from Murmansk on January 8, 1945. That's gotta be you.
Here are your Armed Guard shipmates on that voyage:
Barrick, Marvis E.
Bowley, Robert C.
Brown, Glen C.
Chittenden, Kenneth W.
Collie, Neil L.
Dalesandro, Maurice L.
Downer, W. M. LT, in command
Eicher, Walter M.
Gum, Charles W.
Hall, Melvin
Harper, Alfred L.
Harpool, Charles E.
Harris, Alfred E.
Harris, Nolen T., Sr.
Hartzell, Jack R.
Johnson, Henry O.
Karr, Walter J.
Lester, Estel
Palmer, Roland DeW.
Sapp, Murray E.
Sloane, Lewis G.
Thomason, George E.
Thompson, Ole B.
Treichel, Arnold H.
Wadyko, Joseph J.
Warlick, William J.
Note that I found DONALD W BAIN arriving from Murmansk in January 1945. I suspect that your recollection, as stated in your first message, of going to Murmansk in December 1945 is in error. There would seem to be no reason for ships to be traveling in convoy to Murmansk, or anywhere else for that matter, in December 1945, which was well after the end of the war. So I think you may remember the ship being in Murmansk in December 1944 rather than December 1945.
Incidentally, I found a second entry for you in Ancestry.com, arriving in New York aboard DONALD W BAIN on August 28, 1944, having sailed from Hull, England. The Armed Guard crew on that voyage was nearly identical to the one listed above. There were two other men who were on the ship for the August 1944 arrival who were not on the later voyage:
Hurd, Ted C.
Johnson, J. S.
Unfortunately, for all of the names listed above, I have no contact information, nor do I know whether any of them are still living. However I do find a number of their names, or very close matches, in the Social Security Death Index (http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com). Interestingly, I find an e-mail address for a Marvis E. Barrick, Jr., living in Barren County, Kentucky, who may be the son of the Marvis E. Barrick who was your shipmate. That e-mail is marvis.barrick@ky.usda.gov.
As to your last question, how many Armed Guard veterans are still living, I have no idea except to say: fewer and fewer all the time.
God bless you, and thank you for your messages.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster
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