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ť Forum Name: PT Boats - General
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ť Topic: Info on Dad- PT boat 44
http://www.ptboatforum.com/cgi-bin/MB2/netboardr.cgi?cid=101&fid=102&tid=1559

I would like any information that anyone could give me about PT 44.
I know it was destroyed by the ememy 12/12/42. I know that this was one of the boats my Dad was on. Is there a listing of the men on the boat somewhere? Any info would be appreciated.

Posted By: paking | Posted on: Dec 7, 2009 - 6:06pm
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered

First and foremost, welcome to the PT BOAT message board. It would help a great deal to obtain information, if you would tell us your Dad;s name. Hopefully, some of us here can help you in your quest..........

Posted By: Frank J Andruss Sr | Posted on: Dec 8, 2009 - 1:18am
Total Posts: 3497 | Joined: Oct 9, 2006 - 6:09am

There is an excellent account of the loss of the 44 boat in Cdr. Robert Bulkley's book AT CLOSE QUARTERS, which is sort of the bible of PT operations. I believe it can still be purchased from PT Boats, Inc.

Will

Posted By: Will Day | Posted on: Dec 8, 2009 - 10:30am
Total Posts: 1955 | Joined: Oct 8, 2006 - 4:19pm

Welcome aboard! What was your Dad's name? If you let us know we can look through our books and files. Folks here on the Message Board are great about helping each other out.

ALEX

Posted By: Alex Johnson | Posted on: Dec 8, 2009 - 11:52am
Total Posts: 70 | Joined: Mar 2, 2007 - 12:07pm

His name was Carney Hamilton. I have some information from the National Personnel Records Center which shows he was on /in MTBRON2, MTBRON3, and MTBRON4. My brother says he was on 44, which I understand was destroyed.I don't know if he was on it at the time or not.
There are also references to the Solace and White Poppy-were these medical ships?
Thank you for taking the time out to help us with this, we really do appreciate it very much.

Posted By: paking | Posted on: Dec 8, 2009 - 4:27pm
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered

Paking;
Your father, MoMM2/c Carney Hamilton, was an original crew member on PT 47 skippered by LT jg. Mark Wertz, he was also a shipmate of Rm 2/c Bill Tatroe. Bill's son in law Randy Finrock is also a member of this board, and has quite a bit of info on the Wertz crew.
Go to Gene Kirklands website for a possible photo of him.
http://pt-king.gdinc.com/PT47.html
in the personalities section, Gene has a photo of the Wertz crew in Panama. Their boat was originally PT 37, I think the man listed as "unknown" might be MoMM 2/c Hamilton, since only Wertz and the unkown sailor did not remain with 37, and probably switched to 47.
Hope this helps,
TED

Posted By: TED WALTHER | Posted on: Dec 8, 2009 - 7:34pm
Total Posts: 3059 | Joined: Oct 16, 2006 - 7:42am

Thank you!! I'm 99.9% sure that the unknown man in the picture IS my Dad! I've never really seen any pictures of him that young before-but it looks just like him. I've emailed the link to my brother so he can tell me what he thinks. He told me today that our Dad spent time on an island hospital, I'm thinking maybe that's the "white poppy" I've been looking for.
I'm curious, my Dad was injured twice and I've always been told that he had 2 purple hearts- but I've not seen him listed as receiving them anywhere. Would there be an official site for that? Also, his records show him on 3 different PT boats. I know now, thanks to you, that he was on 37 and 47. Is there a way to find the 3rd boat?
I know I'm asking a lot, and I apologize if I'm being annoying. I am just excited about what I've found out so far, and it kind of makes me feel closer to my Dad. He died 20 years ago.

Posted By: paking | Posted on: Dec 9, 2009 - 4:59pm
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered

I checked with thw family and that IS my Dad, I wanted to try to get in touch with Mr Kirkland to let him know so he can update the picture and to see if he more info. Any idea how to reach him? The PT king @yahoo.com came back as an illegal address. Thanks!!

Posted By: paking | Posted on: Dec 9, 2009 - 6:10pm
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered

To obtain medals Google: National Personnel Records Center

Posted By: QM | Posted on: Dec 9, 2009 - 8:02pm
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered

Hi, and welcome to the PT Msg Board! Ted Walther had mentioned my father-in-law, Bill Tatroe, in his post of the 8th. I wanted to let you know that you may contact me directly at my home e-mail address and I'll share all that I know about Ron-2, the boats, crewmembers, etc. (from the period of 20 Sep 1942 thru 7 Apr 1943, when Bill left Tulagi to return to the states).

Also, I recently went to PT Boats, Inc in Germantown, TN for my 1st visit there and it was great. If you are unaware, that is the National HQ's for PT Boat history and archives. Great organization. Write when you can.

E-mail: adaam0073@cox.net

Randy Finfrock

Posted By: Randy Finfrock | Posted on: Dec 9, 2009 - 9:35pm
Total Posts: 97 | Joined: Nov 27, 2006 - 6:21pm

Paking;
According to Gene's excerpts of the RON 2 and RON 3(2) logbooks, the Wertz crew(PT 47 CREW-SOMETIMES REFERRED TO AS CREW 7), took PT 109 out on patrol on Dec 8th, 10th, 12th, 22nd, and 23rd, 1942.
JFK was not skipper at this time, in fact he was still in Rhode Island. LT. Rollin Westholm and Ens Bryant Larson were the skippers of 109.
It is also possible MoMM 2/c Hamilton was on PT 36 with LT Wertz on Nov 22 & Nov 24, 1942 as LT. Wertz was OTC of this patrol. It must be understood, that during this time period, Crews were assigned patrol duties, they tried as much as possible to use there own boats, but if their boat was down for repairs, they used another boat to accomplish the patrol.
Hope this helps.
.
TED
P.S. click the little envelope at the top of my post and I will give you Gene's current e-mail, otherwise, Randy can fill in the blanks.

Posted By: TED WALTHER | Posted on: Dec 10, 2009 - 5:24am
Total Posts: 3059 | Joined: Oct 16, 2006 - 7:42am

Hello again Paking,

Getting back to your comment in an earlier post about your father Carney Hamilton, you mentioned some info you had from the 'National Personnel Records Center'. I was curious what kind of document(s) you'd been able to obtain that gave you not only details on which MTB RON's he was in, but also about the references to the Solace and White Poppy? Is some of this detail from a copy of his DD-214?

In the meantime, I think you'll find the following of interest, and perhaps it could help you and your brother to open some doors for further research into your father's time in PT's and the Navy:

"Solace", was indeed a Hospital Ship: "USS Solace (AH5)". It was at Pearl Harbor on 7 Dec 1941. By 15 Aug 1942, the Solace was busy at Guadalcanal (where Marines had secured Tulagi a week before). With fighting ongoing, on that date, it took 362 wounded to Auckland, NZ. where a base hospital had been established. Other base hospitals were at Efate and Espirito Santo in the New Hebrides (Vanuatu since 1980), and another base hospital was on the way to being established at Noumea, New Caledonia. These were rear staging areas for the U.S.

"White Poppy", according to the Glossary of US Naval Code Words was the code name for Noumea, New Caledonia. So, perhaps your father (having been wounded), could have been transported on board the USS Solace to Noumea when that hospital was completed? The sick and wounded were shuttled by ship to the base hospitals. Some of those were later moved to New Zealand or Australia, to Pearl Harbor or the continental U.S. The Solace and 3 other hospital ships cared for those wounded in the island campaigns of the South Pacific. There were a total of 15 hosptial ships in service during WWII.

The following is info about the early PT's at Tulagi in the Solomons:

MTB RON-2 PT's (8 boats), arrived Tulagi Nov-20 and Nov-25, 1942. It could be that your father came over in the same convoy from Panama with Bill Tatroe, my father-in-law? PT-36, PT-44, PT-40, PT-47 were on one merchant marine transport ship, and PT-43, PT-59, PT-109 and PT-110 on a second.

In the previous month, MTB RON-3/2's PT's (8 boats), had docked at Tulagi: PT-38, PT-46, PT-48, PT-60 were the first 4 PT's at the base, arriving on Oct-12. Then, PT-37, PT-39, PT-45, PT-61 on Oct-25, 1942.

Got more to share about the status of PT-47 after its first patrol, and other tidbits on boats and crews, but unfortunately, not enough time to type the rest at the moment...

Randy Finfrock

Posted By: Randy Finfrock | Posted on: Dec 14, 2009 - 10:15pm
Total Posts: 97 | Joined: Nov 27, 2006 - 6:21pm

there were also hospital ships at hollandia

earl richmond

Posted By: EARL RICHMOND | Posted on: Dec 15, 2009 - 9:08am
Total Posts: 319 | Joined: Oct 8, 2006 - 1:50pm

They sent me quite a few documents, although some are next to impossible to read.
I got the information about the different ships he was on from a separation form (NAVPERS-553)
The info about White Poppy was on a NAVPERS-601-they gave me a few of those, I'm guessing they were for ratings and station changes. They are extremely hard to read because they are so dark, but one says he was transferred to the solace on 11/14/42 but then it says they were unable to take him and transferred him to white poppy. At least that's what I think it says.
I also got his fingerprints and a copy of his reenlistment papers and copies of leave forms.
One of the forms, which looks like the NAVPERS-601, but it's very legable says he participated in the capture and defense of Guadalcanal, BSI., which is signed three times by an AP Cluster, Lieutenant, USN and
lists his commanding officer as H.S. Parker, Jr, Lt Comdr. USNR of MTB RON THREE. This particular form has 3 different dates on it, as do some of the others which I find confusing.
The answers I've gotten here have been really been more informative than what I received in his records.

Posted By: paking | Posted on: Dec 15, 2009 - 3:15pm
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered

Paking;
Henry S. Parker was first exec then skipper of PT 22, after Midway, both he and Al Cluster(who was PT 21's skipper) first were sent to Palmyra Island under LT. Jonathan Rice, then they were sent to Funafuti, this group of original RON 1 Div 2 boats consisted of PT's 21, 23, 25, and 26, they were later transferred to RON 3(2) at Tulagi on Dec 22, 1942. Parker probably took over for Rice, but was probably on COMMTBFLOT ONE staff.
It is possible were put back on ships, or towed,and they passed through "White Poppy" on way to Tulagi since Funafuti is over 1000 miles away. Maybe Hamilton met up with them at Noumea, or they signed his papers after they arrived at Tulagi in Dec 42. two questions: was he medivac'ed for Malaria, or was he wounded? What are the dates on the Cluster/Parker papers?
Take care,
TED

Posted By: TED WALTHER | Posted on: Dec 16, 2009 - 2:43pm
Total Posts: 3059 | Joined: Oct 16, 2006 - 7:42am

The Cluster/Parker papers say that Dad transfered from Squadron two to Squadron three 12/27/43. Then it has a stamp that looks like it says USS Rochambeau on the top and is dated 2/1/44. Under that is a paragraph dated 1-9-44 with another stamp dated 2/22/44.Under that is a date transferred of 1/9/44 and date received aboard of 3/24/1944.
You can see why I find it confusing.

The form about the USS Solace is dated 11/14/42 it says transferred this date to USS Solace for treatment, then under that 11/14/42 reported to white poppy. Under that it says :12-11-42 -you were unable to report to USS Solace for treatment. Treatment completed at Naval Dispensary. You will proceed and report to Motor Torpedo Two for Duty.
Under That it says date received aboard 1-2-43 from USNAB White Poppy
and is signed by RE Westholm, Lieutenant, USN
I believe this was an injury, a piece of shrapnel in his leg.

Posted By: paking | Posted on: Dec 16, 2009 - 6:59pm
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered

paking:

My email address is pt_king@yahoo.com. Feel free to contact me any time, and I will respond back as soon as I can.

All the best,

Gene Kirkland

Posted By: comcardiv1 | Posted on: Dec 16, 2009 - 7:35pm
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered