Posted by Ron Carlson on November 1, 2016, 6:50 am
The days are growing shorter and colder, while the overly long election is growing hotter. Be patient: this too will pass.
Your webmaster is reporting in, standing watch on the Armed Guard website and message board as usual. Who else is here today?
Ron Carlson, Webmaster Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website www.armed-guard.com
Re: November muster
Posted by Earl Moore on November 3, 2016, 3:41 pm, in reply to "November muster"
Im here for muster in n0vember, keep it going Ron. Earl Moore
Re: November muster
Posted by Gary Paolella on November 2, 2016, 3:40 pm, in reply to "November muster"
Good afternoon, I truly hope you can help as you have many others like me in the past. My father, who is now deceased, served in US Navy during WWII. He was assigned to the Naval Armed Guard and I believe his ship was the SS George E. Badger. I am currently looking for any information you can provide. My father was very proud he served in the Armed Guard but very seldom would talk about it. His name: Pasquale O. Paolella DOB August 19, 1925. Residence: State of Michigan. Again, that you for all you do and have done for us!
Respectfully, Pasquale's proud son, Gary Paolella
Pasquale Paolella
Posted by Ron Carlson on November 4, 2016, 1:32 pm, in reply to "Re: November muster"
Gary,
Thank you for your inquiry. I have found information about your father that may be of interest.
I found your father, Pasquale Paolella, as part of the Navy Armed Guard crew aboard not one but two ships, including the one you identify. Here’s a brief summary of the voyages of the two ships while he was aboard.
The first ship on which I found him was SS EDMUND F. DICKINS. That ship departed New York on February 9, 1944, and proceeded to Hampton Roads (i.e., Norfolk, Virginia area). There the ship joined convoy UGS-33 which departed on February 13, 1944, destination Port Said, Egypt, arriving on March 12. Port Said is the northern terminus of the Suez Canal, through which the ship apparently transited because I find her in two convoys going as far as Bandar Abbas, Iraq, on the Persian Gulf. Convoy AP-65 departed Aden, Yemen, on March 20 and arrived in Bandar Abbas on March 27. The ship departed Bandar Abbas on April 18, reaching Aden again on April 25. She again transited the Suez Canal to Port Said, where she joined convoy GUS-39 to Hampton Roads on May 29. The ship continued on to New York where she finally returned on May 30.
I next found your father aboard SS GEORGE E. BADGER. In this record his name is misspelled as Pasquale Paplella; I suspect that last name has been misspelled more than once. The ship departed New York on October 26, 1944, destination Antofagasta, Chile. Apparently the ship sailed independently, meaning not in convoy and without warship escort, for which I can offer an explanation. Chile is on the west coast of South America and German U-boats and Japanese submarines did not operate in the Pacific Ocean as far east as South America. So it was a good bet that any ship sailing along the west coast of South America would not be subject to submarine attack. The voyage between New York and the Caribbean would have been more dangerous, although few if any U-boats operated in the Caribbean later than August 1943. The ship arrived in Antofagasta on an unspecified date, departed Antofagasta on November 26, and arrived back in New York on December 15, 1944.
As you can see, there is a nearly five-month gap in the record between the time your father arrived in New York aboard EDMUND F. DICKINS and departed New York on GEORGE E. BADGER. That would have been enough time for at least one additional voyage, and possibly two, aboard EDMUND F. DICKINS or some other ship. (He was not aboard GEORGE E. BADGER earlier than October 26, since that ship departed New York on its previous voyage while your father was still aboard EDMUND F. DICKINS.) Indeed, EDMUND F. DICKINS made a voyage from New York to Britain and return in June-August 1944 and made another voyage from New York to Algiers, Algeria, and return in August-October 1944. I cannot determine whether your father was aboard for either voyage. Likewise there was at least eight months from the time your father returned to New York in December 1944 until the end of World War II during which your father may have served in one or more other vessels.
FYI, most of the information I have found comes from the subscription website Ancestry.com (https://home.ancestry.com/), which is more commonly used for genealogical research. I have discovered, however, that Ancestry.com includes databases of the names of crew and passengers who arrive at certain U.S. ports of entry following a foreign voyage. Records for the port of New York are particularly extensive but limited for some other ports. Additionally, the source of the information about convoys comes from ConvoyWeb (http://convoyweb.org.uk/hague/index.html), which lists the convoys in which ships sailed during World War II, the originating and destination ports, applicable dates, and sometimes brief additional information about a ship such as the fate of a ship in a convoy or the cargo carried by a ship. There is no information on the crew of a ship.
Since your father served in at least two ships (very typical for an Armed Guard sailor) and possibly more, you may wish to request a copy of your father's official service record, which could provide a additional degree of detail about his wartime service, including the ships in which he served plus training, shore-side assignments, injuries or illnesses, decorations earned, etc. See this page within the Armed Guard website that I manage, http://armed-guard.com/searchmil.html. In particular, see section II.A.1 - Records of Individuals, Military, for instructions on requesting a copy of his records. You will have to contact the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, MO, and provide as much identifying information as you have (name, date and place of birth, date and place of death, Social Security Number, military ID number ["serial number"], etc.). The page has links to all of the information you will need to request his records, including a required form. There will be a fee for researching, photocopying and mailing the records but the Records Center staff will alert you to the cost before beginning work.
As to the two ships identified above, both were Liberty ship, which was the most common type of merchant vessel built and used during World War II. More than 2,700 Liberty ship were constructed before, during and immediately after the war, and some continued in private shipping service into the 1970s. Only two operational Liberty ships still exist, JEREMIAH O’BRIEN in San Francisco and JOHN W. BROWN in Baltimore. I am a volunteer crewman aboard JOHN W. BROWN and also serve on the Board of Directors of Project Liberty Ship, which owns and operates the vessel. If you are ever in the vicinity, stop by for a visit. I’ll give you a personal tour.
EDMUND F. DICKINS was built in just 22 days (not a record by the way) by the Oregon Shipbuilding Company, Portland, Oregon, in September 1943. She struck a mine off Manila, Philippines, on May 5, 1945, was repaired and laid up in the James River, Virginia, before finally being scrapped in 1947 in Baltimore. See http://shipbuildinghistory.com/shipyards/emergencylarge/koregon.htm and scroll to hull number 765. Also see http://www.mariners-l.co.uk/LibShipsE.html and scroll to the name of the ship. Edmund Finley Dickins (1848-1923) was a noted ship’s captain for U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.
GEORGE E. BADGER was constructed by the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company, Wilmington, NC, in 41 days between December 1942 and February 1943. After the war she too was laid up in the James River until being scrapped in Alicante, Spain, in 1972. See http://shipbuildinghistory.com/shipyards/emergencylarge/northcarolina.htm and scroll to hull number 62. Also see http://www.mariners-l.co.uk/LibShipsG.html and scroll to the name of the ship. George Edmund Badger (1795-1866) was briefly the Secretary of the Navy in 1841 and later was a U.S. Senator from North Carolina, 1846-1855.
You can read a rather ribald tale of a merchant seaman who sailed in GEORGE E. BADGER (but probably typical of any number of tale from any number of ships) prior to your father’s service at https://dippelhistory.wordpress.com/category/10-the-cruise-of-the-badger/.
I hope this is useful.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website www.armed-guard.com
Re: Pasquale Paolella
Posted by Gary Paolella on November 9, 2016, 7:58 am, in reply to "Pasquale Paolella"
Good morning Ron, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for you and what you have done to help me.My family and I truly appreciate it! Again, thank you for all you for us! Take care, and God Bless!
Respectfully, Gary Paolella
Re: Pasquale Paolella
Posted by Ron Carlson on November 9, 2016, 11:07 am, in reply to "Re: Pasquale Paolella"
Gary,
Further to my message dated November 4, 2016, I have found additional information about your father.
I found him aboard EDMUND F. DICKINS on her departure from Portland, Oregon, on or about September 24, 1943. (The construction of EDMUND F. DICKINS was completed in Portland on September 24 so this was her maiden voyage.) The ship stopped briefly in San Francisco for additional crew members and probably cargo. The ship proceeded to Antofagasta, Chile, arriving on an unspecified date. She departed Antofagasta on or about December 17, 1943, transited the Panama Canal and departed Christobal, Panama Canal Zone, on January 9, 1944, and arrived New York January 21, 1944. The record for this voyage lists him as "Pasquele Parlelle" so both names were misspelled.
I can also confirm that he was NOT aboard EDMUND F. DICKINS on her voyages after May 30, 1944, but I have been unable to locate him until he joined GEORGE E. BADGER in October 1944. His records may be out there but I'm unable to guess other creative spellings of his name for which to search.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website www.armed-guard.com
Re: Pasquale Paolella
Posted by Gary Paolella on November 9, 2016, 12:18 pm, in reply to "Re: Pasquale Paolella"
Hi Ron, Interesting! Thanks for the additional information. My father did speak of going to Russia during the war. I'm inclined to think it was on the Murmansk run. Any ideas?
Respectfully, Gary Paolella
Re: Pasquale Paolella
Posted by Ron Carlson on November 9, 2016, 3:33 pm, in reply to "Re: Pasquale Paolella"
Gary,
If he spoke of being in Russia, the only conclusion would be that he participated in a Murmansk Run, as you suggest. A list of U.S. merchant ships that took part in the Murmansk Run at least once is found at http://www.usmm.org/murmanskships.html. This list is of little use to you at this point but if you are able to obtain your father’s military service record, you could cross-reference any ships in which he served against this list. Neither of the two ships that I found him serving in is on the list.
I was able to find what I believe is your father’s obituary, at http://wujekcalcaterra.tributes.com/obituary/show/Pasquale-O.-Paolella-95571029. I notice that the funeral home guestbook includes an entry about his World War II Navy experience, specifically “ … he won the Purple Heart for his bravery in helping to shoot down 3 Japanese bombers on September 17, 1943.” This of course would suggest Armed Guard service in the Pacific prior to his first voyage aboard EDMUND F. DICKINS. However, there is a bit of a logical inconsistency here. It seems highly unlikely that he would be able to cross some portion of the Pacific Ocean on his previous ship, go through whatever administrative processing would have been necessary, and report aboard EDMUND F. DICKINS – in seven days. I have him aboard that ship as of September 24, 1943, per my most recent message.
Do you or your siblings know anything more about his Purple Heart award? And do you know when he enlisted in the Navy? He would have been 16 years old at the time of Pearl Harbor, based on his date of birth.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website www.armed-guard.com
Re: November muster
Posted by Harvel Arnold on November 1, 2016, 6:04 pm, in reply to "November muster"
Harvel Arnold reporting in . The days are shorter but not much colder here in middle Tennessee 85 degrees today may have set a new record.