Nick Stanko of Pleasant Township served in the U.S. Navy Armed Guard from 1942 to 1946.

Armed Guard sailors served aboard U.S. Merchant Marine ships in a variety of duties, from gunners to signal men and radio operators.

“I had boot camp in Sampson, New York,” Stanko said. “Then I went to Little Creek, Virginia, for gunnery training with the .30-caliber machine gun and the three-inch 50-caliber deck gun. Then they put us onboard merchant ships to protect the cargo.”

Four of the ships Stanko served aboard were Liberty ships, and one, the SS Wolverine, was a Hog Islander ship, built in Hog Island, Pa.

He was aboard the SS George Taylor from Feb. 12, 1943 to Aug. 4, 1943; the Thomas Bickett from Aug. 21 to March 28, 1944; the SS William S. Clark from April 8 to Nov. 27; the SS Wolverine from Dec. 16 to April 26, 1945 and the SS John W. Powell from May 1 until Jan. 25, 1946.

“I was on the 20-mm anti-aircraft guns for a time, then I was ‘pointer’ on the three-inch 50-caliber. I was the one that fired the gun. The gunners’ mate told the pointers when to fire,” he said. There were two other “shellmen” manning the weapon, one put the shell into the breech, and one was a “hot” shellman, he said, who caught the case after it was fired, and tossed it over the side. Stanko said the hot shellman had to wear asbestos gloves.

The Liberty ships traveled in convoys, with a few destroyer escorts accompanying them.

“When a Liberty ship gets hit in the bow, amidships and the stern by torpedoes, it takes eight minutes to sink. When they go down, the whistle is the last thing you see,” he said. “They was knocking off Liberty ships. When a tanker hauling gasoline got hit, it was a ball of fire. I saw one tanker get blown out of the water. You tried not to think about it.”

Stanko said one time a ship in the front of a convoy sank. “A guy came floating by with a life jacket. They (the life jackets) had blinking red lights. He was bobbing up and down, hollering for help, but we couldn’t stop. I had to hope a destroyer escort would pick him up. I don’t like remembering that.”

He said he made port in Italy, England and North Africa. “I don’t know how many times we hit those ports. but we didn’t spend very much time in ports.”

“I can tell you a strange thing, though. There was a dead snake in Africa, with Africans circling around it, trying to bring it back to life. Another guy went around with his foot in a wheelbarrow because he had elephantiasis. Scenes you remember for the rest of your life,” he said.

“Then it was over to the Pacific, out of San Fransisco. We went to Guam. I had two brothers on Guam, but I never got to see them, the ship sailed out to New Caledonia. We hit different ports at different times . We went to Saipan, Luzon,” he said.

“I liked the North Atlantic better, there wasn’t much to see in the Pacific.” He said the weather could be bad in the North Atlantic, however. “Standing watch on the bow, all you had was goggles, The cold water would splash up. It was out of this world.”

“I had five brothers in the service. Me and John was in the Navy. Paul and Andy was in the Army Air Corps on Guam and Mike and George was in the Army. Only one got wounded, George got shot in the arm at a big battle over there, when we invaded Normandy. They patched him up and sent him back in, then he got shrapnel in the back of the head. He was the oldest, I was the youngest. They’re gone now, all gone.”

“We stood our watches, manned our guns, ate very good food, ate what the merchant marines ate, had good beds with blankets. We didn’t have to say yes sir, no sir because they were civilians. If the ship was loaded, it was smooth sailing, and on the way back, loaded with ballast, if your quarters were in the stern, you would be going up and down,” Stanko said.