Dear Stephanie,

I have taken the liberty of placing your message under a heading of its own. Your original message responded to one from Mr. James McCabe, but your message was irrelevant to Mr. McCabe's message.

Anyway...

I have researched your father's Armed Guard service and have found records of his presence on three voyages, two aboard ANNISTON CITY and one aboard ATLANTA CITY. I found this information on Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com), a subscription website that is more commonly used for genealogical research. However, Ancestry.com has databases that list the names of crewmen aboard ships that arrived in certain U.S. ports of entry upon their return from a foreign voyage. There are extensive records available for the port of New York in particular.

Below I list the names of your father's Armed Guard ship mates for each of the three voyages. Most of these men are likely deceased by now, and I do not have contact information for any who are still living, with two possible exceptions. I will provide contact information for these two exceptions in a private e-mail to you.

In any case, here is a list of Armed Guard crewmen, other than your father, aboard ANNISTON CITY on arrivals of that ship in New York on July 2, 1944 (from Liverpool, England), and on October 12, 1944 (from Barry, England). The crew list for the two voyages is nearly identical, except for two men who were on the July 2 arrival but not in October, and two who were on the October 12 arrival but not for the July arrival. I have noted the exceptions below.

July 2, 1944 / October 12, 1944 ANNISTON CITY
Carlton Akins
Frank Ambrogio (July)
Pasquale Balzarano
Paul Bennett
Charles Bradley
Mike Buytas
Edward Dolan
Wilfred Doucette
James Dykes
George Gammons
Ferman Gelsomini (July
Peter Gergely
George Gruber
Jerome Kinnear
Frank Leach
Albert Lengemann
Nicholas Liotti
Edward Maher
Walter McPherson
Virgil Means
Louis Morowitz (Oct)
Hilbert Nilsson (Oct)
Thomas Perry LT(j.g.), AG commanding officer
Lawrence Rizzutti
Harry Sangrey
Victor Ulsberger
Thomas Wallace
James Whitley

Following are your father's Armed Guard shipmates aboard ATLANTA CITY upon that ship's arrival in New York on January 16, 1945, from Swansea, England:

January 16, 1945 / ATLANTA CITY
Raymond L Arrington
Clifford P Eckenroad
James S Eddy
William A Elliott
Robyl Fassnacht LT(j.g.), Armed Guard commanding officer
George Ingram Fitchett
Junior R Hadley
Dominic A Lonta
William R Foy
Claude L Hodges
Ernest E Horne
Alvey T Housand
Eugene G Legagneux
Henry S Letarte
Robert Lindley Jr.
Nicholas J Liotti
Raymond T Lonergan Jr.
Paul A Roy
John Sabanick
Edwin J Sebold
Malcolm Stewart
Frank B Tuchnowski

Interestingly, ANNISTON CITY and ATLANTA CITY were sister ships, having been completed just one month apart in 1921, built by Chickasaw Shipbuilding & Car Co., Chickasaw, Alabama. Both ships survived the war, were sold and renamed several times thereafter, and were scrapped in 1958 and 1959, respectively. Photographs of the two ships, and other information about their careers, are at http://www.isthmianlines.com/ships.htm.

You may be able to obtain a copy of your father's military service record, which could contain additional information of interest to you. See this page on the Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website that I manage: http://www.armed-guard.com/searchmil.html. In particular, see section A.1. Records of Individuals - U.S. Military, for details about how to request a copy. You will have to contact the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri, providing as much identifying information as you have. Good luck.

As stated, I will provide additional information in a private e-mail.

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