Ray,

Thank you for your inquiry. Without realizing it, you have hit upon a element in the history of the U.S. Navy Armed Guard that is only rarely noted. The Armed Guard served only on merchant ships, NOT on commissioned naval vessels, so he was not an Armed Guard sailor when he served in USS OKALA. I was able to find an instance of your father’s Armed Guard service, in a voyage aboard SS COLLIS P. HUNTINGTON departing New York on or about Feb. 16, 1943, arriving London April 18, and returning to New York arriving May 4, 1943. Your father was one of a crew of 31 Armed Guard sailors and had the rating of gunners mate 3rd class. He is described as 21 years old, 5’11” and 150 lbs. There may have been other voyages that I did not find. But there is no question that he served in the Armed Guard.

To expand on my statement above, late in the war it was increasingly common for Armed Guard sailors to be assigned “to the fleet,” i.e., to be assigned to commissioned U.S. Navy warships where their experience and training as gunners was invaluable. However, at that point the men were no longer considered to be in the Armed Guard; they were simply U.S. Navy sailors. So there is no Armed Guard crew list for USS OKALA, only a general crew list, which includes your father.

I found Raymond H. Boettcher, gunner’s mate 3rd class, in the muster rolls for USS OKALA, ARST-2, dated June 28, 1945, the date of the ship’s commissioning in New Orleans. At that time, he was one of 178 enlisted men in the crew; a roster of the ship’s officers must exist somewhere, but it was not with the muster roll of enlisted men that I found. (The ship would have had as many as 41 officers.) Your father also appears on a subsequent muster roll, dated October 1, 1945, reflecting his promotion to gunner’s mate 2nd class. A list of the names of the enlisted men as found on the muster rolls for USS OKALA as of June 28, 1945, follows below.

USS OKALA was constructed by the Jeffersonville Boat & Machine Company ("JeffBoat"), Jeffersonville, Indiana, with keel-laying on December 1, 1944. She was build originally as LST 1099, a tank landing ship, then designated as a salvage craft tender and named OKALA later in December. She was launched February 8, 1945, and made a voyage down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans in June 1945. She was commissioned June 28, 1945, with LT. Louis Silver in command. After a month-long shakedown cruise in the Gulf of Mexico, OKALA transited the Panama Canal and steamed to Buckner Bay in Okinawa, arriving September 27. She was based there until transfer to Yokosuka, Japan, in late November 1945. She sailed to Seattle on March 25, 1946, where she was decommissioned on August 4, 1946, and struck from the Naval Register on October 15, 1946. She was sold to the Columbia River Packing Association on July 25, 1947, ultimate fate unknown. See http://shipbuildinghistory.com/shipyards/small/jeffboat.htm.

Weighing 4,100 tons, she was 328 feet long, 50 feet at her beam (greatest width), with a draft (depth of the ship under water) of 11 feet. She was powered by two Diesel engines and had a speed of 11 knots.

Photographs of the ship are available at http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/34/3402.htm, among other places.

I hope this information is useful. Let me know if you have additional questions.

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


MUSTER ROLL OF THE CREW, USS OKALA, JUNE 28, 1945

Clarence A Anderson
Robert A Andrews
Donald F Andringa
Dewey E Arnold
Floyd A Atkinson
Earl W Barber
Roy G Baty
Walter P Black
Raymond H Boettcher
Louis R Boldt
Robert W Boyer Junior
Marcus W Boyle
Willis E Braden
William B Brewer
Albert S Brezinski
Kenneth L Brigle
Randolph Brooks
Edward S Byrne
Albert C Cabella
Cloyd R Carter
Jordan Chandler
Prentice Cole
William W Combs
Nicholas Connolly
George H Coulter
Anthony Cugno
Gerald H Cunningham
Harold H Davison
Loren A Deal
Arthur E Deckelman
Herbert H Deitch
Albert F Deloskey
Richard J Dennis
Joseph M Dibiase
Walter P Doe
Earl B Donaven
Kenneth W Dotson
Max E Dumbauld
Thomas I Dunlap
Louis E Earlewine
Charles J Eder
Arthur L Ellison
Albert S Fadel
Richard J Engleman
Joseph F Ferguson
Burdett E Finley
James E Ford
Philip L Gervais
Edward Gill
Clyde W Golden
Charles U S Grant
Patrick H Green
Neil A Gregerson
Carroll E Hammond
Clarence A Hammond
Jack R Hampton
John L Hance
Douglas D Hardy
George G Harris
James M Harris Junior
Robert A Harvey
Gerald F Hawkins
John T Hayes
Albert A Heubert Junior
William T Hilderbrand
Henry C Hill
Frederick C Hoagboon
Norman C Hogue
John M Homoki
Ronald E Herren
John Indiveri
John J Jacobson
Charles C Jacoby
Frank C Jagos
Carey T Jarman
Charlie Jenkins
Jodie Jessie
William R Johns
Harry W Johnson
Hawthorne B Johnson
Edward Jones
Thomas J Jones
John Kachmarik Junior
Claude Katchner
Joseph Korcz
Thaddeus Kowalski
William R Kuechle
Francis J Leake
Eugene C Leeper
Harry Levitt
Barney A Lewis
Edgar E Lewis
Joseph D Lukas
George W Lynch
Irvin E Makin
Michael Mancuso
James M Martin
Joseph B Massey
James E Mathis
Nick Matthews
James W McDonal
William C McElligatt
M C McKay
Ernest D Merlo
Stanley J Milbut
Clyde B Milhouse
Orval D Millette
Richard R Mosher
Richard H Mussen
Grover R Neal
Roy N Nelson
Robert F Novak
James H Peoples
Lloyd G Peters
Marvin W Peters
Caryl P Peterson
Charles Petishnok
William O Phillips
Carl D Pierce
Leonard W Pike
Joseph C Piotroski
Joseph E Pitts Junior
Francis T Presson
Daniel E Prosser Junior
Earl V Razor
George S Ridgely
Edwin A Roberts
William H Root Junior
Leslie Sandford
Fred J Schaefer
Harold A Schaefer
Frederick W Schimel
Douglas M Schrawger
Lawrence W Semlar
Edward G Senecal
Paul C Shultz
Irwin Silverstein
Paul Sirianni
Charles E Smith
Harry L Smith
Borney W Spencer
Hervey L Stephenson
Robert H Stewart
Eugene E Surratt
Richard Sutton
James C Swearingen
Leonard Swinger
Percy L Taylor
Michael Terlizzi Junior
James D Thomas
Louis H Thomas
John F Tochterman
Philip A Truesdale
Eugene L Turner
Robert G Turngren
George Vakula
Leonard Vanderhoek
Frank Vcelka
Jesse Venegaz
Clement A Verville
Raymond F Vierra
Charles B Wald
Robert L Wallace
William C Wallace
Buckner A Wallingford
Albert R Ward
Edmund R Ward
Frederick E Waters Senior
Obie Weddle
Benjamin J Wegerzyn
John S Wheeland
Wallace Wheeler
Robert D Whitaker
Ernest T Whitsell Junior
Ralph T Wilson
Richard C Wilson
Irving J Wohlstein
William S Wray

FYI, the muster rolls were found on Ancestry (www.ancestry.com), a subscription website widely used for genealogical research. Ancestry often offers short-term subscriptions with an introductory period that is free of charge. You may wish to establish such a subscription and make the same search for your father as I did, finding the same muster rolls. (Search under “Military.”) Then cancel your introductory subscription before the end date and avoid any charges. See the Ancestry home page for subscription information.