On the road

On the road

Monday, April 15, 2013

Profiles Spring-Summer 2013 HFDFW


 

Otis was looking at his options for enlisting in the service in the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor. He states that the Coast Guard was the first service branch office that he came to in his search so he decided to join up. He was inducted almost immediately in Fort Worth Texas, that being on December 13, 1941 at the age of 18.

He was soon assigned to the USCGC Tampa. At the beginning of WWII, the Tampa, and cutters like her, was at the forefront of participating in convoy duty over vast stretches of the icy North Atlantic. In wartime, the Coast Guard became part of the U.S.Navy.

German U-boats roamed the high seas in wolf packs. They were trying to evade ships like the Tampa and then maneuvering into a position to get a clear shot and torpedo tankers and troop transports. These ships with men and material were the lifeblood of England at the start of WWII.

Otis was discharged from the Coast Guard on February 25, 1947 with the rank of Seaman First Class. He had been awarded the Good Conduct medal, and a qualified “Blue Nose.”
  

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