Posted by Edgar Kidman on August 14, 2012, 10:56 pm
Would really appreciate if anyone can supply info surrounding how SS San Bruno earned US merchant ship battle honours during assault-occupation Okinawa Gunto 18 June 1945. My late brother George Kidman , a New Zealand national, was bosn on this ship.
I cannot offer specifics, which may be hard to come by in any case, at least in an online context. However, a U.S. Navy Armed Guard unit aboard a merchant ship could be awarded a battle star for either of two general situations. The battle star could be awarded for the involvement of the ship and its crew in an "engagement," which might be thought of as an attack or battle, taking place in a specific area and at a specific time. Or a battle star could be awarded for involvement in an "operation," which is a series of military actions, possibly over a greater time span or geographical area, and possibly including multiple contacts with the enemy. An invasion of a Pacific island would be considered an operation. See http://www.usmm.org/battlestar.html.
You are correct that SAN BRUNO earned a battle star for its part in the assault and occupation of Okinawa-Gunto. It may be significant that the award was based on the ship's action on a single day, 18 June 1945. Many other ships that earned battle stars for the same assault and occupation were cited for time periods of one to four weeks. In other words, SAN BRUNO may have earned a battle star for a specific engagement/battle/attack whereas other ships were recognized for their role in an operation/invasion/occupation, using the definitions above.
But as also noted above, details are not readily available. One option is to contact the National Archives which, among its vast holdings, has original Armed Guard reports of voyages of merchant ships on which Armed Guard units served. These reports, written by the on-board Armed Guard commanding officer, often include day-by-day reports of activities of the Armed Guard personnel aboard a ship, including contacts with the enemy. Certainly an incident significant enough to earn a battle star would be recorded in the Armed Guard report for the voyage in question. You may be able to obtain a copy of the Armed Guard report, if it exists, for SAN BRUNO for the voyage during which the ship was engaged in the Okinawa-Gunto operation. See http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq16-2.htm for information about contacting the National Archives.
Good luck.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website www.armed-guard.com
Thank you for reply, Ron, have been following up links. Confirm my brother was on SS San Bruno, 1 Jan. 1945, at San Francisco; port of departure, Guadalcanal. He was on many ships throughout the war, beginning with SS Port Saint John, voyaging from Dunedin to NY, and somewhere near Hawaii in Dec. 1941, and later the Korean War. It is very difficult getting any but the barest details of what went on. I remember in a letter he had said he was at Yokohama sometime around the surrender, so may have then been on a different ship - no record of San Bruno among the official list of ships present. It is a significant anniversary date approaching for you all, 27 August. Regards to you and your website comrades-at-arms.
I have found online information that SS SAN BRUNO was built by an Irish shipyard, Workman Clark and Co. in Belfast, Northern Ireland about 1919. She was owned and operated by the United Fruit Steamship Company prewar (and postwar?) so very possibly she was a "banana boat." According to http://www.unitedfruit.org/great-white.htm, SAN BRUNO was part of United Fruit's fleet as early as 1919. She was a refrigerator vessel so during the war she might have carried fresh or frozen food. SAN BRUNO is mentioned in passing at http://www.shipscribe.com/usnaux/AF/AF24.html, which describes and has a photograph of a sister ship. SAN BRUNO also carried as many as 12 passengers, presumably prewar.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website www.armed-guard.com