USS Antigua Grouping

[Witt]

An extensive grouping I picked up a few years ago at a show named to a local vet. Gordon Wixom was the USN Armed Guard Commander and Captain of the USS Antigua (AF-17) during WW2. LCDR Wixom was born in 1908 in Janesville, Wisconsin. He graduated with a Bachelors degree from UW Whitewater later earning his Masters degree at the University of Colorado. After graduating, he was teaching at a local high school when he was registered for the draft in October of 1940. I could not pick up any more information about him until 1942 when he was stationed aboard the Antigua as a Lieutenant Junior Grade. He received the Certificate of Satisfactory Service as a Lieutenant in February 1946. Several months later, he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and was discharged by 1947. This concluded 32 months of sea duty as the commanding officer of the Antigua.

The Antigua started life in 1931 as a passenger and refrigeration reefer for the United Fruit Company, often times carrying bananas to the United States. On December 26, 1941, the Antigua was delivered to the War Shipping Administration for chartered service with the Navy. Here it was designated a Mizar-class stores ship and renamed the USS Antigua (AF-17). Maryland Drydock Company modified it into an armed merchant ship with the addition of one 5”/38 caliber gun, four 3”/50 caliber guns, and eight Oerlikon 20mm guns. I am unsure of the location but they made many unescorted trips across the Pacific along the “hazardous Murmansk Route” moving at 17 knots. It was later seen offshore of Eniwetok in the summer and early fall of 1944. Returning to Hawaii in October 1944, the Antigua collided with the E.A. Christenson causing considerable damage to both ships. The Antigua continued on damaged but ran aground on a Hawaiian reef two days later and had to be pulled off by the USS Jicarilla. The troop transport role continued throughout 1945 returning to Honolulu from Guam in October of that year.

There are some interesting items included in this group. The small lapel pin showing he was a member of the Navy League of the United States. His ID bracelet and ID tag with cord. The visor and pants unfortunately were not included although the jacket has the sewn ribbon bar and fine embroidery on the cuffs. Framed Certificate of Satisfactory Service signed by the Secretary of the Navy, Hames Forrestal. Sixteen small photos; 15 Velox photos taken on the ship deck, the other a confidential and official Navy photo of the Antigua. The four large photos are quite impressive for their detail and comparative size for photos of the time. Two are unmarked and show the damaged Antigua. The third is another confidential, official USN photo taken at Pearl Harbor. The final photo is stamped by the District Intelligence Office and was also taken at Pearl Harbor. It is marked up and shows the damaged bow of the E.A. Christenson. The fob etched with Gunnery Officer is something that I have not seen another example of.


Not a collector of Navy items, but a steal for $50- way too good to pass up. Thanks for reading.

[Witt]

Further documentation that has been scanned and posted online. The registration card for Gordon Wixom as well as the complete crew list compiled after the final return to Honolulu in October 1945.

[MAP]

A fantastic price at $50! Congrats!

[AZPhil]

Great grouping.
Love the photos that tell the story.

Semper Fi
Phil

[Rakkasan187]

This is a great grouping,

These groupings don't always have to be for someone on a Carrier or Battleship..

You did extremely well for $50.00 especially with the additional photos showing the damage to the ship, rosters and additional information on the Sailor. It may be possible that the uniform in the photo is the one that is also pictured with the grouping.

It is possible to add to this grouping if NARA has the Sailors complete records..

Thank for sharing and saving this grouping

Smitty

[Witt]

I submitted a request with NARA in the hopes of getting more records of Gordon Wixom to add to this grouping. Finally able to check their response and see what documents they found- hunt it was nothing. I was slightly surprised when they told me they could not find anything in connection to him. It must have been because he was in the Armed Guard and not in service as a regular Navyman.

[Rakkasan187]

Witt,

There are a few possibilities and still another option that you can use..

I once had a similar experience with NARA claiming they could not find records for an individual when I knew they existed. I had purchased a Pearl Harbor Purple Heart and the previous owner had copies of some of the records that he had obtained from NARA, so I resubmitted my request two more times and I finally received the records I was pursuing. Each request was handled by a different person at NARA so Keep in mind that the folks that work at NARA are government employees and some of them lack the research skills or the drive to look deeper into requests and if they can't find the hard right they take the easy wrong and state that the records could not be found or they were destroyed in the fire simply because they are overloaded with requests for records or other reasons.... that unfortunately is the nature of the beast.

Now I am not knocking NARA or the staff members but if you would like to try to get the records through an outside source, I would like to suggest GOLDEN ARROW RESEARCH.

Golden Arrow research can also pull records for members of the Merchant Marines and they may be able to search for Naval Armed Guard members as well...

The owner of the company Geoff Gentilini and his staff are remarkable at what they do and what they can find.

When NARA came up empty searching for my Grandfather's brothers WW2 service I reached out to Geoff and his staff was able to find his records, along with map coordinates to where his unit was in Italy and pages and pages of detailed information that our family did not know. I was happy that I reached out to Geoff and was completely satisfied with the price I paid for the detailed and in-depth research. Here is a link to their business.

Research a Person ~ Genealogy & Military Records Research ⋆ Golden Arrow Research

I also understand that if there is no family connection to this grouping but just an interest in putting the records together with the grouping you may or may not want to peruse further than NARA which is perfectly fine, but you may also be able to reach out the Naval Armed Guard and Merchant Marine Museum and they may also be able to help you out..

Best regards, stay safe

Smitty