I have found what appears to be the answer in some of the excellent transcription work that Rick Pitz had done over the past couple of years, to our great collective benefit.
Chapter 3 of "Administrative History: Arming of Merchant Ships and Naval Armed Guard Service in World War II" contains a lengthy discussion of a defensive weapon that was intended to be used on merchant ships, named the "Mark 29 mine." See http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/Admin-Hist/172-ArmedGuards/172-AG-3.html#Mark29.
This was not a mine in the sense that one usually thinks of it, namely an explosive device floating or anchored in the water to explode when an unlucky ship happened upon it. Rather it was an explosive device, one or more of which would be trailed ("streamed") behind a vessel, with acoustic capabilities that would pick up the sound of an approaching torpedo fired from a submarine. When the torpedo reached the mine, the mine would explode, in turn causing the torpedo to explode before it reached the ship.
While possibly having some theoretical value, there were serious practical difficulties with this device, not the least of which was what happened to the ship when both the mine and the torpedo exploded nearby. A host of such problems eventually led to the abandonment of the Mark 29 mine as a defensive weapon aboard merchant vessels.
But before the Navy finally reached that decision, it trained a number of Armed Guard officers and men in the operation of the mine, with that training taking place at the Naval Mine Warfare School in Yorktown, Virginia, matching exactly the information Mike has about his father-in-law. I can't decipher the "A/TD" designation Mike found on his father-in-law's paperwork, but the above explanation seems to fit.
Training for Armed Guard personnel in the use of the Mark 29 mine began in August 1943 but was suspended in November 1943 or shortly thereafter, and associated equipment intended for installation on merchant ships was disposed of. As the report laconically notes, "Armed Guard officers did not indicate that a single torpedo was ever detected by the device."
I think we have an answer to Mike's question.
[PS. Mike, the good thing about talking to yourself is that you never get in over your head intellectually.]
Ron Carlson, Webmaster
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