I was wrong; clearly your father was awarded the Bronze Star medal, and also qualified for a bronze service star, for multiple awards of battle stars to the ships in which he served. My apologies.
ELIHU THOMPSON was damaged when it struck a mine on Sept 26, 1944, according to http://www.usmm.org/sunkaz.htmlor10017 (scroll down to name of ship; names are alphabetized by first name so ELIHU THOMPSON is found between ELIHU B WASHBURNE and ELIHU YALE). According to this page (http://www.mariners-l.co.uk/LibShipsE.html; scroll down to name) ELIHU THOMPSON was scrapped in 1969 so clearly she did not sink from her encounter with the mine.
From what I can find, it appears that CITY OF FORT WORTH was built in 1920, originally named LA CROSSE. She was renamed to CITY OF FORT WORTH in 1924 (a name change typically accompanies the sale of a ship from one shipping company to another), renamed again to HAI CHI in 1946, and was scrapped in 1951. She was built in Duluth, Minnesota, by a company later known as Walter Butler Shipbuilders, although operating under a different name in 1920. See http://www.shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/2large/inactive/butlerduluth.htm. To get to the open ocean she would have had to traverse the Welland Canal in Ontario, bypassing Niagara Falls. At the time the canal was narrower and shallower than it is today, and the locks may have been shorter as well. All of this conspired to limit the size of ships that could use the canal, so she may well have been a relatively small ship. The link above does not indicate her size.
Ron
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