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» Forum Category: PT Boats of WWII
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» Forum Name: PT Boats - General
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» Topic: RON 27 boat 360/361
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Not sure if my grandfather Alfred Hugo Wieland was on 360 or 361 but am looking for photos of him or both boats. Alice at the TN office seems to think he was on 361 as a cook and 40?? gunner. I do have his mint condition HUGE acid paper scrap book and will be sure to post photos once I can get over to my mothers house again. I noticed a lot of posts stating there are lots of photos of the 361-I wonder why. Also I understand there commander was killed on corregidor in Feb 1945 while rescuing paratroopers from the 503rd. I remember names like green, treasury, battan, corregidor, and many others, so it sound like they went everywhere. My mother also has a photo of my grandfather water skiing behind the PT somewhere. I know I have a photo that shows the 360 and 361 together on a beach with the writing "we were always together," so they must have cruised together? I would appreciate ANY photos or information on either boat as I would love to see a photo of him till I can get over and view that book again. Thank you all for letting me into your group.

Sean Fitzgerald

Posted By: Sean Fitzgerald | Posted on: Mar 20, 2017 - 5:07pm
Total Posts: 5 | Joined: Mar 20, 2017 - 4:51pm



Sean - I posted one pic of the 360 and a couple of the 361 in response to your query on FaceBook.

Will

Posted By: Will Day | Posted on: Mar 20, 2017 - 10:26pm
Total Posts: 1955 | Joined: Oct 8, 2006 - 4:19pm



Sean - I posted one pic of the 360 and a couple of the 361 in response to your query on FaceBook.

Will

Posted By: Will Day | Posted on: Mar 20, 2017 - 10:26pm
Total Posts: 1955 | Joined: Oct 8, 2006 - 4:19pm



Yes Will and I appreciate it greatly. I just wondered what else was out there. And I also wondered why some people choose the 361 to build models after? Again I really appreciate it Will. I look forward to chatting again on FB.
Sean

Sean Fitzgerald

Posted By: Sean Fitzgerald | Posted on: Mar 21, 2017 - 9:25am
Total Posts: 5 | Joined: Mar 20, 2017 - 4:51pm



Sean,

Your grandfather was on the 361 and he is listed as either Al Weiland or Cookie Weiland in the captions in my father’s photo album. I’ll post some of those pictures; however it may take a few days due to current work demands. I also have an unofficial duty roster and I’ll check that to see what “Cookie’s” assignment was. That ‘duty roster’ is hand written on the back of an envelope containing a letter from my grandfather to my father while he was in the Pacific. I also have a rough outline my father wrote of the areas and dates of operations for the 361, and most or all of the areas you mention are on that list. They did move around a lot.

There are some inaccuracies in the history you provided in your post and I’ll try to correct those where I can. I can state for a fact that the commander of the 361 was not killed at the Corregidor invasion. If that were true I wouldn’t be here! The first officer of the 361 was killed at the “invasion” of Ft. Drum (aka, El Fraille Island (sp?) or The Concrete Battleship) just after the Corregidor invasion, and that may be what you heard of. The Ft. Drum operation was terribly inaccurately documented in the official reports, a situation I discovered in the late 80’s that really bothered my father and Ray Shaffer, the RON 27 commander, when I brought it to their attention. I have pictures my father took at both Corregidor and Ft. Drum and will get to posting those eventually. Your grandfather was most likely at Ft. Drum, a rather nasty and unnecessary event that cost two lives and resulted in multiple injuries among the crews of the 361 and another PT (don’t have the boat number handy).

The 359, 360 and 361 operated together very frequently and I have many pictures of those three boats, either as a group or separately. The reason that there are so many pictures of them may be that may father processed the camera film and made photographic prints in his cabin on the 361. He would make copies for crewmembers of his and other boats, and he would also process and print film provided by other boat crews. You probably have many of the same pictures that I do. The originals will have a censors stamp on the back, often with the initials VK written in the center of the stamp – Vic Kodis. My father’s negatives degraded long ago and I can’t always tell which of the pictures he actually took. I believe there were other boat crews that also processed and printed pictures.

Finally, I’m pretty sure your grandfather didn’t water ski behind the 361. My dad took great offense at the premier episode of McHale’s Navy when they were water skiing behind the PT. Physically impossible, he said. Then again, maybe he knew it was impossible because they tried it. I never thought to ask him. He did later enjoy McHale’s Navy once he got past the liberties they took concerning PT operations. Decades later a retired Admiral I worked for was greatly entertained by one of Ensign Parker’s reports my father and I always made reference to: “Sighted nothing; sank same.”

More later,

Randy McConnell


Randy McConnell (Randall J. McConnell III)

Posted By: PRJM3 | Posted on: Mar 21, 2017 - 9:40am
Total Posts: 94 | Joined: May 25, 2009 - 2:47pm



Sean,

Apologies, I see I misspelled your grandfather's name.

Randy McConnell (Randall J. McConnell III)

Posted By: PRJM3 | Posted on: Mar 21, 2017 - 9:41am
Total Posts: 94 | Joined: May 25, 2009 - 2:47pm



Greetings,

My grandfather Clarence Gibson, was Quartermaster on the Coral Princess, PT-360, during 1944/45. I do not have any photographs of his boat, but do have a small photo of the crew. My grandfather is top row, third from the left. I hope this helps some here.

Regards,

SaintC


Crew of PT-360, PTRON 27, circa 1944/45, south pacific.



Posted By: SaintC | Posted on: Mar 21, 2017 - 9:42am
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered




Sean - I posted one pic of the 360 and a couple of the 361 in response to your query on FaceBook.

Will


Greetings Will,

Would you be so kind as to post or direct me to a photograph of PT-360? I have looked for years for information about my grandfathers service and have actually found quite little. Any information you may have on the Coral Princess and the crew would be wonderful!

Thanks!

SaintC



Posted By: SaintC | Posted on: Mar 21, 2017 - 10:00am
Total Posts: | Joined: Unregistered



[image]http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p249/ptboats/PT-360.jpg[/image]

Will

Posted By: Will Day | Posted on: Mar 21, 2017 - 2:39pm
Total Posts: 1955 | Joined: Oct 8, 2006 - 4:19pm



Help, Dick!

Will


[b][red]GOT'YA WILL[/red][/b]
Dick . . . . .

Posted By: Will Day | Posted on: Mar 21, 2017 - 2:40pm
Total Posts: 1955 | Joined: Oct 8, 2006 - 4:19pm



Randy, thank you so much for the information. I will try to take photos front and rear(as long as I don't damage the photos removing them)from my grandfathers scrap book. Hopefully there is something in there you can use too. I appreciate all of the help. Thanks again to Will and Frank again as well.I will also see if I have any photos of any other boats as well, such as the 360.

Sean Fitzgerald

Posted By: Sean Fitzgerald | Posted on: Mar 21, 2017 - 3:47pm
Total Posts: 5 | Joined: Mar 20, 2017 - 4:51pm



THANKS, RICHARD!

Will

Posted By: Will Day | Posted on: Mar 21, 2017 - 10:30pm
Total Posts: 1955 | Joined: Oct 8, 2006 - 4:19pm



That's an interesting photo Will. I can't figure out if that is a .50 in the turret or something else. And the railing looks different, more rounded where it drops to the turret.




Posted By: Jeff D | Posted on: Mar 22, 2017 - 4:48am
Total Posts: 2200 | Joined: Dec 21, 2006 - 1:30am



You're right, Jeff. It does look a little weird. I don't think the railing is heavy enough to be for a 20mm mount. I'm thinking it's maybe a normal .50-cal rig with the guns removed. I can't remember ever seeing anything else mounted in a forward turret.

Will

Posted By: Will Day | Posted on: Mar 22, 2017 - 10:09am
Total Posts: 1955 | Joined: Oct 8, 2006 - 4:19pm



My mother sent me a photo of PT361's crew. Will try to post a photo asap. Names left to right are:
Top: Guse(could be spelled wrong), Chuck, Larry Godwin, Lusty(Custy maybe)and Joe Frabatta.
Bottom row: Curly, Shelley, Flint, Al (my grandfather), Bob Speilman.
And the words "Now some stuff huh" and VK faintly seen in the light.

Also above the name Shelley is (Milbur) which might be his name or belong to Chuck???

Sean Fitzgerald

Posted By: Sean Fitzgerald | Posted on: May 14, 2017 - 4:35am
Total Posts: 5 | Joined: Mar 20, 2017 - 4:51pm



Trying to figure out how to upload a photo from my files of the 361 crew.


Sean Fitzgerald

Posted By: Sean Fitzgerald | Posted on: May 14, 2017 - 4:51am
Total Posts: 5 | Joined: Mar 20, 2017 - 4:51pm



Sorry for the delay in getting these posted but I’ve been overwhelmed at work. This is a small selection of the pictures I have of 361 crew members, these pictures focusing on shots with a majority of the crew and/or Cookie Wieland being in them. They are in chronological order with captions from Dad’s photo album.

SaintC, I have a fair number of pictures of 360 crew members. What was your grandfather’s name? Edit: I just noticed that his name was in an earlier post - Clarence Gibson. I'll see if I have any pictures of him.

[image]http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o102/prjm3/PT%20Boat%20Crews/361%20crew%20-%201_zpssxxhscrk.jpg[/image]

Biak Island & Mios Woendi – September 1944 – Front Row: Al Heimke, Vance Greening, “Appy” Aptheker, Bob Frobotta – Back Row: Al Wilson, Ed Giese, Al “Cooky” Wieland, “Curly” Albright, Randy McConnell, Leroy “Shoes” Schoessler, “Dusty” O’Neil

I asked my Dad why he was always the only one wearing a T-shirt and he said that officers had to wear a shirt when on shore. He’s occasionally not wearing a shirt in pictures taken on the boat. The on shore exception is a series of pictures of him and other officers wearing a grass skirt in front of this same Quonset hut and they weren’t wearing shirts.

[image]http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o102/prjm3/PT%20Boat%20Crews/361%20crew%20-%202_zpsvknrfll2.jpg[/image]

Biak Island & Mios Woendi – September 1944 – Dusty O’Neil, Al Wilson, Cooky Wieland, Appy Aptheker

[image]http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o102/prjm3/PT%20Boat%20Crews/361%20crew%20-%203_zpsizidieuh.jpg[/image]

Al Wieland, Al Heimke, Harley Black, Will Shelley, Larry Godwin, Randy McConnell - More of the crew originally showed in this picture but for some reason Dad cut it up and the negative no longer exists. He may have done that to send a picture of a crewmember to one of their relatives before scanning was available. I remember that it was taken on the boat and that's why Dad is not wearing a shirt.


[image]http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o102/prjm3/PT%20Boat%20Crews/361%20crew%20-%204_zps3b8qxce3.jpg[/image]

Wieland, Schoessler and Tojo the monkey

[image]http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o102/prjm3/PT%20Boat%20Crews/361%20crew%20-%205_zps3o0olgra.jpg[/image]

361-5 – Members of 361 Crew - No names provided but we did match up most of them with other pictures at one point. I might have kept a list of the names, but who knows where it is.

[image]http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o102/prjm3/PT%20Boat%20Crews/361%20crew%20-%206_zpshz6cihjm.jpg[/image]

“Cookie Wieland loading 20mm gun” – Dad spelled Cookie/Cooky both ways in his photo album.

[image] http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o102/prjm3/PT%20Boat%20Crews/361%20crew%20-%207_zpsyqljlpoh.jpg[/image]

361-7 – Balikpapan, Borneo - “The third crew of the 361. Most of these men came aboard in the Philippean Islands.” Dad returned to the US shortly after this picture was taken and the war ended while he was in transit. Somewhere I have a list with the names of about three quarters of the men in the picture that Dad and I pieced together a few years before he died. He said that at least three crew members are missing from the picture because that’s how many had to be on the boat at all times in case they needed to get underway.

Randy McConnell (Randall J. McConnell III)

Posted By: PRJM3 | Posted on: May 16, 2017 - 1:36pm
Total Posts: 94 | Joined: May 25, 2009 - 2:47pm