I have found information about a Liberty ship named SS GEORGE W. JULIAN, which sailed extensively in the Pacific between 1943 and 1945. GEORGE W. JULIAN was built by the Oregon Ship Building Corporation, Portland, Oregon, in April-May 1943. She survived the war and was scrapped in 1961 in Tacoma, Washington. See http://shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/4emergency/wwtwo/koregon.htm and scroll to hull #691.
I have been unable to find a ship named WILLOT S. HAYES but did find a Liberty ship named WILLET M. HAYS. WILLET M. HAYS was built by the Kaiser Permanente Metals Corp., Richmond No. 2 Yard, Richmond, CA, in February-March 1944. She too survived the war, was sold to a French shipping company in 1947, sailed under the name of COURSEULLES, and was scrapped in 1963 in Hamburg, Germany.
See http://shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/4emergency/wwtwo/kperm2.htm and scroll to hull #2763. Also see http://www.mariners-l.co.uk/LibShipsW.html and scroll down. Pictures of the ship, in its postwar appearance as COURSUELLES, are found at http://www.es-conseil.fr/pramona/courseulles.htm.
The subscription website Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com), which is more commonly used for genealogical research, has records of the names of crew members who arrived in various U.S. ports of entry. In a search of the website, I found records of WILLET M. HAYS arriving in San Francisco on a number of dates in 1945, and in Seattle on one date in July 1946. Likewise, searching Ancestry.com for GEORGE W. JULIAN, I found records of her arrival in San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Oregon, on a number of occasions in 1945. Presumably she, too, operated in the Pacific. In all of these searches, however, I was unable to find men named Lomax or Martin aboard either ship upon their arrivals in the various U.S. ports. This may suggest that the databases at Ancestry.com are incomplete, not necessarily that the information from Mr. Martin is in error.
Also consider the possibility that the first name of Mr. Lomax was spelled Ansel, which is a much more common spelling than Ansul.
If Mr. Martin wishes to pursue his inquiry further, he MAY be able to obtain the service record of Mr. Lomax by contacting the National Archives. See this page on the Armed Guard website for detailed information about how to proceed: http://www.armed-guard.com/searchmil.html. In particular see "II. Researching Military Service Records" on that page. Since Mr. Martin is not next of kin to Mr. Lomax, he would not be able to obtain the complete service record, but may obtain enough information to continue his search for Mr. Lomax.
The same page has information about obtaining details of ship movements and operations during World War II, including Armed Guard officers' reports. If Mr. Martin has specific dates during which he and Mr. Lomax were aboard GEORGE W. JULIAN and the dates during which Mr. Lomax was presumably aboard WILLET M. HAYS, he may be able to obtain Armed Guard officers' reports for those ships and for those dates. The reports might give additional information about Mr. Lomax, since those reports should list the Armed Guard crew by name and possibly with serial numbers or other identifying information. See "IV. Researching Ship Records" at http://www.armed-guard.com/searchmil.html.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster
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