This project started as an attempt to document my Grandfather's time aboard the USS DEFENSE (AM-317) in World War II. Much of the information, like the deck logs, war diaries, muster rolls and ship's plans, came from the National Archives in Maryland. I also searched the web for months, and downloaded images and pages that related to my interests.

I intend for this site to be used by my relatives to learn a little about PaPa's service during the war. Since I do not derive income from any of the images and text on this site, I do not imagine that any copyright infringements that I've committed will warrant legal action; however, if you feel that I've used some of your images or text improperly, please e-mail me and I will remedy the situation.

To my family: I've tried to gather the most complete pictorial and textual history I could. I know that more images of my grandparents exist, and I would love to have the opportunity to put them up for all of our relatives to enjoy.

Roy Cordell
12052 Red Oak Estates
Fayetteville, Arkansas 72704
479-361-2057
rcordell@uark.edu

An excellent source of first-hand accounts of combat during World War 2: http://members.ols.net/~ernieh/index.html

Some of the web sites that I used to gather information:

• http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/
• http://www.nara.gov/
• http://www.kaleidoscopic.com/adams/
• http://www.microworks.net/pacific/
• http://www.cfcsc.dnd.ca/links/milhist/index.html
• http://history.cc.ukans.edu/history/index.html#military history
• http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/
• http://metalab.unc.edu/hyperwar/

Books:

History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Volume 14: Victory in the Pacific, by Samuel Eliot Morison. Little, Brown and Company, Boston. 1960. Library of Congress Catalog number 47-1571.