Aaron,

Harvel has good information for you. As he notes, the ship in which your grandfather served was known as SS FOUR LAKES, not USS FOUR LAKES. SS means "steamship" whereas USS means "United States Ship" and denotes a commissioned U.S. Navy vessel. FOUR LAKES was never a commissioned vessel.

For information about the ship, see http://shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/2large/active/alabama.htm and scroll to hull number 268. FOUR LAKES was a class T-2 tanker, built in 1944 by the Alabama Dry Dock & Shipbuilding Company, Mobile, AL. She was sold to a private shipping company in 1948, renamed V.A. FOGG in 1971, and blew up in the Gulf of Mexico in 1972 (yikes!) with the loss of 39 crew members. See http://www.usnavyoilers.com/V-A-Fogg/index.html for information about her loss.

Your grandfather was definitely a member of the U.S. Navy Armed Guard during World War II. In fact I can find records of his sailing as part of the Armed Guard detachment aboard FOUR LAKES on five voyages between August 1944 and May 1945. The voyages were between New York and England, and New York and Italy. There may have been other voyages as well, not recorded in the sources available to me. Since he received the Asiatic-Pacific theater ribbon, he must have sailed in the Pacific as well, either aboard FOUR LAKES or some other ship.

Just FYI, the Armed Guard website is not comprehensive with respect to the men who served in the Armed Guard. I don't know if a single list of all Armed Guard officers and men exists, but certainly not on the website. Most names found in the website refer to Armed Guard veterans who joined the Armed Guard Veterans Association sometime in the last 20 years or so. Your grandfather died before the Association was formed and, of course, long before there was an Armed Guard website.

If you wish I can provide a list of your grandfather's Armed Guard shipmates on the voyages I found. I would not know whether any of those men are still living.

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