Hello Ron,
Thank You for jogging my memory with that information. I have hired a woman who does Caligraphy to fill in the blanks on the Neptunus Rex document as well as another certificate I was able to find. I can't really describe the feelings I got while finally getting to read Dad's letters home after all these years. It's quite a feeling to know what his thoughts were at age 17-19 during WWII. Quite different from the mature,hard working and wonderful Father he was to us, but already his great sense of humor was evident. In one letter to his mother he writes "Sorry I didn't make it home on my last 2-day leave..I was standing at the Seattle Bus Depot waiting for a bus, when an army man walked by and made a low remark about the Navy. being the loyal Navy man I am I figured it was my duty to clip him, which is what I did! I spent Sunday night in the hospital after getting 3 stitches in my eyebrow...not bad compared to the other guy!" That is so far out of character for the man I knew as my father, but just what you'd expect from a proud teenager defending the Navy's honor:-)
I recently started reading a great book titled: "Unsung Sailors, The Naval Armed Guard in WWII,"which briefly mentions one of the ships Dad was on, The SS John Lykes. I would recommend it to anyone who has/Had a family member in AG's. thanks again, Ron.
regards,
Jim Nelson