Patrick,

It is highly unlikely that any man who was a ship mate of your grandfather would happen to read your message on the Armed Guard message board, particularly a message buried so deep in the message board. (This message board is not designed to "bump" new messages to the top of the list.) Most of his shipmates are probably no longer living and those who are alive often are not very knowledgeable about the internet. Nearly 145,000 men served in the Armed Guard during World War II.

I made a search of the subscription website Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com) for your grandfather. Ancestry.com is more commonly used for genealogical research but the website includes databases of the names of crew members who arrived in merchant vessels in certain U.S. ports of entry at the end of a foreign voyage, as late as 1957 in some cases. Information on some ports, New York for example, is very extensive, but less so for other ports.

I found a record of your grandfather, and his ship mates, when SS CAPE TRINITY arrived in San Francisco on 19 April 1945, having sailed from Saipan, Mariana Islands. Here are the names of the Armed Guard crew:

* William R Brakken
Lee A Burnett
* Vernon A Clawson
Johnny Washington Clouse
Doyle Crain
Olie E Forshee Jr
Harvey T Fritz
Jack S Guinn
Ralph C Hopes
Roy M Howell
Jack L Kittridge
Eugene H Krumheuer
Eben B Little
Elmer I Lorensen
James F Maiaske
Raymond L Nolan
Ernest L Nunley
Walter T O'Tooie
Kenneth A Oxenrider
Donald E Paimer
Philip H Selberg
Harold D Spencer
Clarence Taylor
Donald V Wickoren
James W Williams
Parker F Wood Jr., LT, Armed Guard commanding officer

You may want to see if you can locate any of the above men, since I have no contact information on them, nor do I even know which ones are still living if any. You may want to check the more unusual names first against the Social Security Death Index (http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/) to see if you can identify any who have died. Any you cannot find in the Social Security Death Index, check against an online telephone directory like White Pages (http://www.whitepages.com/) to look for current contact information. The more common names you will not be able to trace definitively.

* William R Brakken and Vernon A Clawson are or were members of the U.S.N. Armed Guard World War II Veterans Association. The Chairman of the organization would know whether either is still living and, if so, would have contact information. Please contact:

C.A. Lloyd, Chairman
U.S.N. Armed Guard World War II Veterans Association
115 Wall Creek Drive
Rolesville, NC 27571
Telephone: 919-570-0909
E-mail: clloyd@nc.rr.com

I did not find any records of your grandfather aboard MARINE TIGER, which may only mean that my sources are not complete.

Similar to the above, I found several men who were or are members of the Armed Guard Veterans Association and sailed aboard MARINE TIGER at some time or another, and who may have been ship mates of your grandfather. Again, please contact Mr. Lloyd for contact information for any of these men:

Harry E Horne
Miguel Reyes
Burl Rosuck
Bryce F Sheffler

A photograph of MARINE TIGER, and several photographs of some of its crew, can be found at http://www.armed-guard.com/swegle.html. For sources of other photographs of World War II-era merchant ships, please see this web page: http://www.usmm.org/photosource.html.

Good luck.

Ron Carlson, Webmaster
Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website
www.armed-guard.com