My Father; Merritt Reed Saunders, GM 3 NAG 1941-46
Posted by PR Saunders on August 13, 2009, 12:40 am
My father, Merritt Reed Saunders, GM3, USNR, enlisted in the Navy on December 15, 1941 at Williamson, WV. He was sent right away to Norfolk, VA where he went to Boot Camp for 2 weeks and then to Little Creek for one week to learn how to fire different kinds of naval guns, the predominant one being a 4.50 inch WWI piece.
He shipped out on a tanker from Norfolk in the first week of January, 1942. His first cruise was to Durban, SA and return. He said that on their return into Hampton Roads and Norfolk, his ship saw a German U-Boat that was surfaced some distance away from them. They shot at it, succeeding in damaging it and the Planes from NAS Norfolk finished it off.
He said that his crew got credit for the sub. When they were in port at Norfolk, he said that they were walking around with their chests puffed out because of hitting the U-Boat.
On their next cruise, they were headed for Caracas, Venezuela. When they were in the Caribbean, their ship was torpedoed in the middle of the night, going down in a matter of minutes. Dad said that he and most of the crew lost all of their gear and clothing with the ship. Scrambling onto the life rafts from the water dressed in only their skivies.
Dad said that the U-Boat surfaced, its crew asked if they had any wounded, (one crewmember had died in the sinking) while having their guns trained on the survivors who were on rafts. Dad said that their LTJG, took a picture of the U-boat and they (the NAG crew) were scared that the Germans would see what he was doing and shoot them. Dad said that their officer had been an Congressman's aide before the war and received a commendation for taking the picture, while Dad and the rest of the NAG gun crew were stuck in Panama, after being picked up by what Dad called a Panamaian Banana boat after being adrift for a week.
He caught Malaria while at Panama, while manning the guns on a patrol boat that cruised the canal for a number of weeks. After he got out of the hospital, he got orders to San Francisco, where he worked for the Harbor Pilot while waiting for his ship to come in to port.
His ship, the SS Cape San Blast, came in and he shipped out, even though he had an offer to stay at San Francisco, and work for the Harbor Pilot. He said that he wanted to go to sea. He spent the rest of the war in Pacific, and his ship, a tanker, supported the battles at Guadacanal, New Guinea, and the Philippines. His ship and crew later spent many months anchored near Ulithi where they were gathering the invasion fleet for Japan. That was where he was at, when the war ended. He did not get out until late 1946 when he returned to the states.
My Dad died on October 23, 1975 at the age of 56, of cancer. He was a good father and husband, marrying my mother in late 1946, and they raised six children, two boys and four girls. He was very proud of his service in WWII, being a member of the Armed Guard and the US Navy.
Both my Brother and I served in the US Navy, during the Vietnam War era. I was in the US Navy Seabees from 1968 to 1972 as a Construction Electrician 3rd Class, spent over 37 months in different parts of Asia and SE Asia. My brother who is nine years younger than me, enlisted at age 17 on his birthday in March of 1974, he was a Shipfitter/SN, served in the Med on Sardinia and at Little Creek, VA. He got out in 1977.
I am interested in hearing from anyone who can fill in the holes for me on my father's service in the Armed Guard.
Patrick R. Saunders, M.A. Instructor, American Culture Studies Bowling Green State University Firelands College One University Drive Huron, OH 44839 prsaund@bgsu.edu
Re: My Father; Merritt Reed Saunders, GM 3 NAG 1941-46
You should obtain a copy of your father's WWII record from the National Personnel Records Center in St Louis. Directions and forms on how to apply are on the Net. The fire there years ago apparently did not affect the section containing naval records. Once we get a list of his ships we should be able to identify the submarine that sank his tanker,
Re: My Father; Merritt Reed Saunders, GM 3 NAG 1941-46
A ship named Cape San Blas was launched in July of 1943. It was a C1-A type, of 6,440 listed displacement, was sold in 1947 and scrapped in 1968. I cannot find any history of its WWII travels. There was also a ship named San Blas sunk by U-boat 158 in 1942, but several of its crew were killed and I believe the survivors were picked up by a PBY patrol plane and flown to the US. U-boat Net has this ship listed. Cape San Blas is the name of a well-known Florida Cape. There is no record of any ship named Cape San Blast.
Re: My Father; Merritt Reed Saunders, GM 3 NAG 1941-46
ConvoyWeb apparently makes no attempt to cover all the supply ships that moved among the many island bases in the Pacific during WWII. And 180 ships were torpedoed in the Caribbean Sea during the war. I have scanned dozens already, concentrating on ships that listed only one death. I will keep working on this from time to time.