231st Port Company 492nd - Port Battalion, U.S. Army

“Three Minutes Late” by Sgt. Francis V. Stuart

On February 16, 1943 my dad and one brother took me to Lodi (Medina Co., Ohio) where I got a bus which took me and about 15 others to Wellington (Lorain Co., Ohio) where we got on a train that took us to Fort Hayes in Columbus, Ohio. After a few days there I got on another train, which took me to Camp Hathaway out side Vancouver, Washington for my basic training. I was in the 492nd Port Battalion and our job was to load and unload ship’s bombs, tanks and other supplies. We were moved up and down the West Coast to different ports.

After a few months I got a 15-day furlough to go home which six days was spent on the train ride to and from camp. Shortly after the furlough I was shipped out of Camp Stoneman, California with ten thousand others. We landed on Guadalcanal, which was to be home for sixteen months.

The 492nd’s job was to unload and load ships that supply the troops. The ships had to unload off shore because there were no docks to pull the ships up to. This was day and night. While I was on the island I got a telegram telling me Janice gave birth to a baby boy, Francis M Stuart (me) and both were ok. I made the rank of staff Sargent.

My 1st Sgt., two other men and me had to go to another part of the island and it was my turn to work on the ship that night. I thought we would have enough time to get back and go with my men. We were returning to camp. The road we took passed over a small mountain and we got to the top and started down, one of the tie rods came off. We got the jeep stopped. It took a long time in getting the thing repaired so we could get back to camp. When we got back to camp my men had left three minutes before. That night the ship my men were on exploded killing all of them. (They would not tell us if the ship blew up or the Japanese had sunk it).

Pfc. John Preedom was an U.S. Army stevedore aboard the USS Serpens when it exploded January 29, 1945.

John Preedom Memorial Page

US Army Private Glenn B. Frank was from Madisonville Tennessee. Private Frank was not stationed on the USS Serpens; he simply came over to visit some friends on the ship and decided to stay the night on board when it exploded and sank.

Dan Wilson's Story,

Robert Dan Wilson joined the Army in the early part of the U.S. involvement of World War II. He attended basic training at Camp Hathaway, Washington. From there he became a Stevedore for the Transportation Corp. unloading food, equipment, ammo and other necessary supplies. He was part of the 492nd Port Battalion, 231st Port Company In 1943 at the Solomon Islands and eventually serving in the Philippines. By the end of the war Wilson was a T-5 Corporal or Technician 5th Grade.

Also while traveling to the different islands Wilson remembers how the bunks were, "You could move and touch the guy next to you, reach up and touch someone, and stick you foot through the crack between bunks and touch another guy." He says that although the quarters were tight the men didn't fight. However, he did get seasick a lot.

On the islands the soldiers would give the locals cold water to drink and they would let the water warm up before drinking it because they didn't have refrigeration so they weren't used to it. They also had to keep the islanders out of the garbage cans because they were starving.