My father served on the George C. Childress Merchant Ship during WWII. We have not had much luck locating other veterans or their stories online. He would enjoy so much being able to communicate with others who may have served on this ship. It seems that the Armed Guard as a group has been much overlooked for their service. My father is now 87 yrs old and I continue to search for other he may have known or shared similar experiences with. Thank you, Deborah Wall
What is your father's name? I may be able to help by possibly identifying the names of his shipmates, although many or most will no longer be with us. As you can understand, the odds that one of his shipmates is still alive and happens to read this message board are pretty remote.
Keep in mind also that the Armed Guard detachment on a given ship changed from time to time (and the merchant marine crew on each ship changed even more frequently) so there may be Armed Guard and merchant marine veterans who sailed in GEORGE C. CHILDRESS who did not sail with your father.
As to finding the stories of other veterans online, well, the Armed Guard website has a lot of them. See armed-guard.com/stories.html and armed-guard.com/men.html.
Even better, what your father can do, or what you can do for him, is join the U.S.N. Armed Guard World War II Veterans Association. The Association (or more specifically its Chairman, Mr. C.A. Lloyd) publishes an interesting magazine/newsletter, "The Pointer," three or four times per year with stories of Armed Guard and merchant marine veterans, stories of ships, etc. that may be of interest to your father. Best of all -- no dues! Mr. Lloyd operates the Association as a personal labor of love. Knowing that his primary audience is likely living on fixed incomes, he charges no dues, although he gratefully accepts donations of course. So get in touch with Mr. Lloyd and tell him I sent you. See www.armed-guard.com/association.html for Mr. Lloyd's address and other details.
Good luck.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website www.armed-guard.com