All twelve of these sailors were received aboard the Zircon on 3 April 1941. With the exception of one, they served for less than two weeks, and as it was noted on the deck log for that day, the men had reported on board between 0800 and 1200 hours “for temporary duty in connection with training.”
Edward William Edwards, S2c
Francis Woods Keefe, S2c
William Edward* Whitney, S2c
Irwin Earle Meyer, S2c
Harold Eugene Clift, S2c
Thomas Frank Fiorini, S2c
George Richard Kaufmann, S2c
Frank Joseph Strakosch, S2c
Theodore Charles Metzing, S2c
John Francis Ronkovitz, S2c
Burton Sandiford Evans, F3c
Robert John Hendricks, F3c
You’ll notice that two of the sailors were Firemen, Third Class (F3c) and the rest were Seamen, Second Class (S2c).
Clift and Ronkovitz were transferred off the ship on the 11th and 14th respectively, and the rest, save for Evans, were transferred on the 15th. Evans would remain on board until 10 March 1943, and be promoted to Fireman, First Class (F1c) in August of 1942 before being released from “all active duty for the purpose of enrollment and assignment to the Training School for Prospective Licensed Officers in the Maritime Service.”
I’ve come across quite a few sailors who pulled temporary duty on the Zircon, but this group of men came aboard not two weeks into the Zircon’s commission. I suspect that the ship itself was being run through various exercises in its first month to prepare it for regular duty, so the Navy took the opportunity to train sailors and officers during that time. I find it interesting that all of the men’s service numbers begin with either 402 or 403, so I wonder if that’s denotes something. I recently came across a deck log which documents receiving six Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) cadets aboard, and every one had a service number that began with 404. Perhaps men were assigned service numbers upon completion (or commencement) of their initial training, so if trainees were at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center, for example, they might all have had the same prefix? Or perhaps if they all enlisted at the same place? I couldn’t find anything online about it, but the answer’s out there somewhere.*
Because these sailors’ time aboard the Zircon was brief, I’m not inclined to do a deep dive on their lives, but my tendency is, in fact, to do deep dives on their lives. Mostly because I can’t help my curious self, but also because I want to present the basic facts as accurately as possible. That said, there were 450 or so men that came and went between March of 1941 and May of 1946, so I need to try to set a limit for myself. It’s very possible, of course, that I’ve misrepresented the life facts of some of these men, especially considering the hit-or-miss aspect of the available documents.
Edward William Edwards, S2c, was born in Staten Island 15 March 1920 to Edward A. Edwards and Catherine Sullivan Edwards. In addition to the temporary duty aboard the Zircon, he served on the Wyoming (AG-17), Maddox (DD-622), DuPont (DD-152), MSTS American Mariner (a cadet training ship… temporary duty again), and the LST-1035. He married Myrtle Audrey Seaman (!) on 17 November 1941, and they had one daughter, Pamela Audrey. Edwards died 28 January 2005.
Francis Woods Keefe, S2c, was born in Brooklyn, New York on 26 September 1913, the oldest of five sons to John Joseph Keefe and Elizabeth “Bessie” Woods Keefe… his brothers: John, Jr, Thomas, Charles, and George. At the time he enlisted in the Navy, he worked at the Park Central Hotel in Manhattan. He married divorcée Lois Martha Lafferty in October of 1943 and they had four children together: Constance, Kathryn, Francis, and Lois. After divorcing in 1953, Keefe married Elizabeth Judd Mills and had a daughter, Tura Elizabeth. Keefe died on 10 August 2000, and it appears that at some point, he reclaimed what I assume to be his original family name, O’Keefe, as that’s the name on his grave marker, which also indicates that he’d become an officer before leaving the Navy. Taking a quick look, I found that he was commissioned as an Ensign in 1941, and Lieutenant (j.g.) in December of 1945.
William Edward Whitney, S2c, was born 16 February 1919 in Brooklyn, New York, to Henry “Harry” John Whitney and Mary “Mae” Agnes Dougherty Whitney. He appears to have had three siblings: Harry, John, and Thelma, with Thelma looking to have died in her first year of life. He married Ann Teresa Hamilton, a widow who had a son, James Donald, by her first husband George W. Montgomery, and he and Ann had two children together, Robert and Kathleen. He was transferred from the Zircon to the USS Wassuc (CMC-3) on 15 April 1941 and three times received a rating upgrade—to S1c, COX, and BM2c—and was transferred off the ship on 9 February 1944. While the United States Department of Veterans Affairs Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem (BIRLS) Death File indicates that Whitney was discharged from the Navy on 10 Oct 1945, the 1950 U.S. Census listed “Armed Forces” as his occupation. Whitney died 10 February 1979.
Irwin Earle Meyer, S2c, was born in Brooklyn, New York on 25 April 1919 to Samuel and Lottie Zaltz Meyer, who had emigrated from Russia and Germany, respectively. He enlisted in the Navy on 10 October 1940 in Whitestone, Queens, New York, and his first assignment appears to have been this temporary duty aboard the Zircon. He would go on to serve on the USS Wassuc (CMC-3), where he was promoted to Seaman First Class (S1c) on 1 October 1941. On 7 September 1942, he transferred to the Naval Training Center in Noroton Heights, Connecticut for radio school. After training, he was received aboard the USS Elizabeth C. Stanton (AP-69) on 13 March 1943 as a Radioman Third Class (RM3c), and transferred to the USS Barnett on 3 May 1943, where he was promoted to RM2c on 1 December 1943. He was transferred to the USS Samuel Chase (APA 26) on 4 February 1944, then to the USS Henrico (APA-45), and then to the USS Polana (AKA-35) on 21 February 1945 until 25 September 1945 (RM1c (T)). (Based on quick look-ups of these ships, both the Barnett and the Henrico were involved with the Allied invasion at Normandy, and I’m pretty sure this is Meyer, at 95, talking about that experience. )
In 1946 or 1947, Meyer married Minnie Baum, who along with her sister Sara had come to the United States from South Africa.*** Irwin and Minnie had a son, Stewart, in November of 1947, and at the time of the 1950 United States Census, they were living with Sara and her husband, Reuben Gale, and their son.
Sometime in the 1970s, Irwin took over as bandleader of the Kings County American Legion Headquarters Band, a position he held until his death in May of 2015 when he was struck by a car. A month later, the New York Times ran a feature about him.
Harold Eugene Clift, S2c, was born in Staten Island New York on 9 October 1919. His parents were Harold Lazell Clift, who worked for the Daily News in its Delivery Department, and Elaire “Elsie” Wheeler Clift, a “saleswoman” in the “soda, candy” business. Harold enlisted on 4 November 1937 and was a member of the New York National Guard when he was assigned to the Zircon. After he was transferred from the Zircon on 11 April 1941, Clift was assigned to the USS Wassuc (CMC-3), where after a month of being reported as Absent Over Leave and considered a deserter. I don’t know what repercussions he faced as I can find no other documentation of his service. On 31 March 1945, he married Marion Cafaro and they had four children: Patricia, Thomas, Diane, and Mary. He worked as an insurance claims adjuster for twenty-five years, until he died in 1971.
Thomas Frank Fiorini, S2c, another native of Staten Island, New York, was born 5 July 1920. His father, Dominico (“Dominick”) Fiorini emigrated to the United States in 1912 when he was 15, and worked in a soap factory as well as, later, with the U. S. Government in Tompkinsville. Thomas had a brother, Louis J., and a sister, Marie A.
I found two very different enlistment dates for Fiorini… 19 August 1937, which appears on the Zircon’s 7 April 1941 Report of Changes (as well as other ships’ muster rolls), and that which appears on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File—27 January 1941. That seems odd to me, especially since he served on the USS Leary (DD-158) for two weeks, on the USS Wyoming for about a month in 1939, and on the USS Reuben James (DD-245)**** for two weeks in September of 1940 (temporary duty/training) before being assigned to the Zircon. Perhaps the latter is a RE-enlistment? After his duty on the Zircon, he served for almost seven months on the USS Wassuc (CMC-3) and received a rating upgrade to S1c before being transferred to the Brooklyn Naval Hospital on 12 December 1941 (no details noted). He was discharged in April of 1942. Interestingly, neither the Wassuc nor the Zircon are mentioned on papers involving his discharge, which I obtained from the National Archives, but some kind of physical disability is noted.
Fiorini married Francesca (“Frances”) A. La Vista on 27 August 1949, but I have no further knowledge of what became of him after that—where he worked or if he had kids—other than that it appears he lived in Manhattan for some—if not all—of the rest of his life. He died at 61 on 29 November 1984.
George Richard Kaufmann, Jr., S2c, was born in Staten Island to George Richard and Maria Reina Dexheimer Kaufmann on 26 August 1917. He enlisted in the New York National Guard 1 August 1940, and like Thomas Fiorini, he did fourteen days training duty on the USS Reuben James before reporting for his temporary assignment aboard the Zircon. I could find no additional naval service for him after his Zircon stint, but he enlisted in the Army on 28 September 1942, and served with the 93rd Airdrome Squadron, Army Air Corps. Kaufmann married Gladys Esther Lunberg in 1960 but they had no children. In 1940, George was a Junior Clerk with an insurance company, and after the war, he worked his way up to Supervisor at Metropolitan Life. Along the way, he moved to Rutherford and Monroe Township, New Jersey, where he died 20 September 2007 at ninety years of age.
Frank Joseph Strakosch, S2c, was born to Franz Joseph Strakosch and Salome Henrietta Caroline Kappe on 17 August 1919 in the Whitestone area of Queens, New York City, and was the oldest of three boys. His brothers, George Robert and Walter William were born in 1924 and 1928, respectively. Strakosch enlisted in the New York National Guard on 5 September 1940, but I could find no additional records with regards to naval service. And as with George Kaufmann, he enlisted in the Army on 19 March 1942. I’m uncertain as to when he married Irene Frances Wilks, but it appears that they had a son, Douglas Robert, in 1948 according the the 1950 U.S. Census, and was working as a Firefighter for the New York Fire Department. I managed to find one news article about a fire in College Point, New York, in which he was taken to the hospital for injuries related to putting out the blaze. Strakosch died 3 January 2006. He was 86.
Theodore Charles Metzing, Jr., S2c, was born in Brooklyn, New York on 11 February 1922 to Theodore Charles, a milkman for Borden’s, and Marie A. Ruegg Metzing. In 1940, Theodore was considered a “new worker” on the census, so I’m guessing he was a general laborer, but not long after the census—as with a number of the others I’ve written about here—he enlisted in the New York National Guard—on 16 July 1940. After his two-week training period on the Zircon, I wonder if he was assigned stateside, as I could find no additional muster rolls on which his name appears (which could be a transcription thing as much as anything else) and he was discharged on 20 April 1944.
On 22 June 1946, Metzing married Edna Alberta Fuchs, and they had three boys, Theodore III, Kenneth Walter, and Gerard Eugene, in 1947, 1953, and 1956, respectively. According to the 1950 U.S. Census, Metzing was a Postal Transportation Clerk. He died 11 December 1985 in Deland, Florida, where he moved after retirement.
John Francis Ronkovitz, S2c, was born in Trenton, New Jersey on 26 October 1921 to Frank Rudolph Ronkovitz and Gustina “Justine” Johanna Pariza, an Austrian emigrée. Rudolph, a machinist, moved his family from Trenton to Staten Island’s Mariners Harbor area, where John, a department store clerk at the time, enlisted in the New York National Guard on 24 October 1940, a little more than five months before he came aboard the Zircon.
From the time he left the Zircon on 14 April until his name appears on other ships’ muster rolls is a span of over three years, which again, I guess I have to attribute to either stateside service or documents not being available or not yet transcribed or some combination of all three. That said, he was received aboard the USS Melville (AD-2) on 23 May 1944, shortly before D-Day, and according to the Report of Changes, he had been stationed at the United States Navy Advanced Amphibious Base (USNAAB) in Falmouth, England, so perhaps that explains his absence from muster rolls. His rating at this point was Radioman, First Class (RM1c), so he had to have attended radio school at some point, no? On 4 June 1945, he was transferred to the U.S. Naval Amphibious Receiving Base (USNARB) at, I think, Plymouth, England, for future transfer to Norfolk, Virginia for additional training. He was transferred to the “Reserve Naval Training Ships” and in September of 1947, it appears that he re-enlisted through September of 1950.
On 1 July 1950, he married June Rae Kolnacki, who at the time was a secretary at an insurance company. (I can’t help but wonder if she crossed paths with either Harold Clift or George Kaufmann.) John and June had three daughters: Jean, Joanne, and Julia. In 1953, Ronkovitz obtained a degree in Engineering from NYU, and in 1979, he retired after thirty years as a systems analyst. He died just two years later, on 31 May 1981.
Burton Sandiford Evans, F3c, was also born in Staten Island, on 18 May 1922. His father, Sidney J. Evans appeared to have worked a number of jobs from 1920 to 1940; his mother was a “Matron” at a theatre in 1940. Evans enlisted in the New York National Guard on 29 February 1940, and on 7 September 1940, he was received aboard the USS Hamilton for “Passage to USS ROPER (at rendezvous) for 2 weeks training duty with pay.” I couldn’t find a Report of Changes which noted he’d been transferred to the Roper, nor did I find his name on any of the Roper’s Reports of Changes or Muster Rolls.
One of two sailors in this contingent that had the rating of Fireman, Third Class, Evans was aboard the Zircon until 15 April 1941, but he would be the only one of this group that would return to the ship in any capacity. He was received aboard again on 24 June 1940 and would serve aboard the Zircon until 10 March 1943, after which he was transferred “to inactive duty.” During this stint, he was promoted twice—to F2c in January of 1942, and to F1c in September of that year. There are no other records of his service aboard Navy vessels after that, but Evans was a Junior Third Assistant Engineer aboard a couple of merchant ships—the American Manufacturer which departed Liverpool, England on 24 March 1944 and arrived in New York on 17 April; and the SS Exminster, which left Barry, Wales on 18 September 1944 and arrived in New York on the 30th. He was discharged from the Navy on 21 October 1944, so I’m guessing that his reserve status allowed him to work in the Merchant Marines prior to his discharge.
On 23 April 1945, Evans was certified as a junior grade Lieutenant in the United States Maritime Service. On 27 August 1962, he married****** Marion W. Koehler in Greenwich, Connecticut, and they moved to Nashua, New Hampshire in 1982. Evans worked for the Veterans Administration from 1947 to 1981, where he served in the engineering departments in Veterans Administration hospitals in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens, New York. He died in Manchester, New Hampshire on 10 March 2001. He and Marion had no children.
Robert John Hendricks, F3c… There were two sailors I found via Ancestry’s military records with this name. One was born in Wisconsin, and the other was born in Yonkers, New York. According to the ship’s Report of Changes that mentions his reporting for duty indicates that he enlisted in New York, I think it’s a very short leap to assume I’ve got the right guy. I’ve sent a note to his late son’s widow who said she’d try to find out for me, so perhaps she’ll be able to confirm it for me soon.
Robert’s father, Joseph A. Hendricks (Hingyos), was a first-generation Hungarian, and Anna Kovalyjk/Kovalik Hendricks was a Czechoslovakian who had emigrated with her parents from Austria-Hungary. Joseph was a milkman for Borden’s and Anna was a weaver. Robert was born in Yonkers, New York on 5 December 1923, the seventh of eight children.
I could find no information about where he attended high school, but since he was received aboard the Zircon in April of 1941, he had to have enlisted not long after graduating (likely in September of 1940*******), as he would have been only about four months past his eighteenth birthday.
In addition to his temporary assignment aboard the Zircon, he served on the USS Thurston (AP-77) for exactly one year, from 22 September 1942 to 22 September 1943, when he was transferred to the Naval Hospital in St. Albans, New York. I’m unable to determine when he was discharged from the Navy, He married Agnes Mary Ulciny on 8 December 1943 and had four children, Robert, Jr., Gary, Dennis, and Donna. According to his obituary, he was a police officer for twenty-five years in Hawthorne, New York, retired to Poughkeepsie, then after Agnes died in in 1997, he moved to Hollywood, Florida, where he died three years later, on 10 August 2000.
*I went through my spreadsheet and took a look at most of the men who had enlisted in Tompkinsville, Staten Island, and found that all except one had a 402 (most of them) or 403 prefix on their service numbers, so I have a feeling that the locale of enlistment has something to do with it. The prefix of my dad’s service number was 647 and he enlisted in New York, but not knowing where in New York that was, I can’t quite draw any conclusions. Also, there is the factor that my dad was not a native New Yorker… so did that have anything to do with it?
**I’m 99% sure Whitten’s middle name is Edward. The deck log and Reports of Changes on which I found his name only include his middle initial.
***This was somewhat of a wild ride down the rabbit hole! Reuben Gale was born in Clinton, Massachusetts in 1898. His father Abram, who had emigrated from Russia, traveled to Johannesburg, South Africa apparently for something related to silver mining, and in 1908, he sent for Reuben, 10, to join him. Reuben eventually took work as a “cyanide learner,” which I think is another term for a cyanide assayer. (I wasn’t aware that cyanide is used in the extraction of both silver and gold from their respective ores.) In July of 1922, Reuben had to re-apply for permanent residency in the United States as he had been out of the country for fourteen years. It’s my assumption that he met Sara Baum while in South Africa and that they decided to get married and live in the United States, and Minnie came along.
****More about the Reuben James later.
*****I can’t pick Evans out in this photo. He might be the officer in the front center as I believe that was the year he was commissioned as a Lieutenant (j.g.).
******On Evans’s draft registration card, in the space for “Name And Address of Person Who Will Always Know Your Address, Audrey Evans is written in, along with the same address at which Evans lived, so there is a possibility that he was married once prior to 1962.
*******One of the muster rolls from the USS Thurston indicates he’d enlisted on 15 September 1942, but that had to be a re-enlistment since his first date aboard the Zircon was 3 April 1941. So, I have to guess that 15 September marked his two-year enlistment anniversary.
My Father Served On The USS Zircon (PY-16) 