This really isn't the place to inquire about Navy airships (blimps) since the Navy Armed Guard and the merchant marine had nothing to do directly with blimps. But a little bit of self-education today leads to the following.
Your information seems to indicate that your father was first assigned to Naval Training Station (NTS) Great Lakes, Illinois (i.e., boot camp training), then was later assigned to Blimp Hedron 2 and Blimp Hedron 1. HEDRON is an acronym meaning Headquarters Squadron; it is not the name of a blimp if that is what you had been thinking. So HEDRON-1 and HEDRON-2 are simply two different Headquarters Squadrons, although not indicating the location of either squadron. DET is another acronym possibly meaning Detachment although I cannot say for sure.
During World War II, the U.S. Navy operated a number of Lighter Than Air (LTA) airships, i.e., blimps. They were typically used for observation, reconnaissance and anti-submarine patrols along the U.S. coasts and in the Caribbean and, later, in Europe. While the details are somewhat confusing, it appears that airships were organized into Fleet Airship Wings and then either into detachments (DET) and then into squadrons, or into Fleet Airship Wings and then into squadrons. Individual squadrons were identified with the letters ZP, meaning airship patrol squadron.
There were five Fleet Airship Wings during World War II:
Fleet Airship Wing One – headquarters Lakehurst, NJ, with additional major stations in Massachusetts, North Carolina and Georgia, smaller stations elsewhere along the Atlantic coast
Fleet Airship Wing Two – headquarters Richmond, FL, with additional major stations in Louisiana and the British West Indies, smaller stations elsewhere in the West Indies, Cuba and Texas
Fleet Airship Wing Three – headquarters Moffet Field, CA, with additional major stations in California and Oregon, smaller stations in California, Oregon, Washington and Mexico
Fleet Airship Wing Four – headquarters Recife, Brazil, with additional major stations elsewhere in Brazil, smaller stations in Brazil, West Indies and Cuba
Fleet Airship Wing Five – headquarters Trinidad, British West Indies, with additional major stations elsewhere in the Caribbean and Florida; one squadron was sent initially to Morocco and later operated in Gibraltar, Malta, Tunisia, France and Italy
From what I can conclude, the information you have with respect to Blimp Hedron #2 DET #23 may correlate with Fleet Airship Wing Two, DET (Detachment?) 23, located in Hitchcock, TX. Similarly, Blimp Hedron #1 DET #21 may correlate with Fleet Airship Wing One, DET 21, located in Richmond, Florida. (The Richmond, Florida, facility actually appears under both Fleet Airship Wing One and Fleet Airship Wing Two, depending on the date in question.)
So the information you have appears to identify the units to which your father was assigned but does not identify the specific airships in which he flew.
The most common type of Navy airship was the K-class airship; each blimp of this class was named with the letter K followed by a number. There were 135 K-class airships built, designated K-1 through K-135. They were about 250 feet long, 57 feet wide and could cruise at 55 mph with a range of 2200 miles. Each had a crew of ten men. Other World War II-era airship types were the smaller G-class (ten were built) and L-class (22 built), used primarily for training, and the larger M-class (four built), used for patrol. Only one blimp was lost during World War II to enemy action although a number of others were lost to weather or mechanical mishaps.
Extensive information about the history of the Navy airship program is available online at:
Wow...I was way off. I am thanking you for all your help. This will lead me in the correct direction. The links are great. When I requested his records, I was expecting more information on where he may have been or what he may have done on board. Is there something else I may need to request for to get that info?
Thank you again for all your help. Deborah Allison