I found a passenger list of the Qeen Mary, arrival New York 9.Nov.1945.
Unit Designation: 184th General Hospital, Stat. Code UBU
This list list included:
- Honkomp Margaret M. (32), Rank 1st Lt, ASR 55, ASN N-733977, Arm on Service ANC
Can anybody explain me the list?
Thank you,
Werner
Werner,
I'm not positive, but I think
ASR = Army Service Record (?)
ASN = Army Serial Number
"Arm on Service" should read "Arm of Service" ANC = Army Nursing Corps
Regards,
Joel
Werner,
I would guess that Margaret Honkomp was a nurse in the Army Nurse Corps (ANC), with her rank as First Lieutenant (an officer one grade above second Lt.), Army Service Reserve No. 55, her Army Serial No. N-733977. That is all my estimate, having served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps in 1954-1956. I believe youcan check out Margaret's record on the internet through the U.S. Army, Check through Google on the internet for US Army veterans, WW II.
Have not contacted you for a few years,m I did read of your family gatheriing and US tour through Honkomp ancestry towns here.
Merry Christmas and God's blessings,
Bob
Werner,
The Queen Mary was probably being used as a troop transport returning the
military hospital personnel (and perhaps patients)from Europe after the end of
WWII.
Don Roddy
----- Message from werner@honkomp.de ---------
Joel and Don pretty much nailed it. The Queen Mary is a well known ship of the Cunard Steamship line presently housed as a floating museum in Long Beach, California, where it now serves as a historic hotel and convention facility. During WWII it was painted grey and used as a trans-Atlantic troop transport ship. The vessel sailed from 1936 through 1967, both as a wartime transport carrier and cruise ship. When I was younger, our family took it to the Hawaiian Islands when it was a commercial liner when we moved back there for many years. Ironically, it's only an hour or so drive time from where I now live here in SoCal, proving it's a small world indeed.
1945
November 4 to November 9
Embarkation/Debarkation: Southampton, England to New York, NY
Units on Board: 11,483 troops, 48 passengers & 837 crew
Convoy Number: None known
Source: S. Harding - Gray Ghost: The RMS Queen Mary at War
Notes:
The Queen Mary was built in Scotland and first set sail in May 1936. It was named for and launched by Her Majesty Queen Mary amidst great fanfare and celebration. During her more than 30 years at sea, the most celebrated liner of its time hosted A-list celebrities and society figures, sailed more than 1,000 transatlantic crossings and played a pivotal military role between 1940-1946, when she was commissioned to transport military troops during World War II. After carrying more than 765,000 service personnel throughout the conflict, Prime Minister Winston Churchill credited Queen Mary (as well as sister ship Queen Elizabeth) with ending the war one year earlier than estimated. Today, the Queen Mary is one of Southern California's most recognizable icons and continues to educate and entertain visitors from all around the world, offering tours, exceptional exhibitions, a calendar of festivals and numerous social and special events year-round.
Re the Queen Mary in WWII:
War Service: March 1940 - September 1946
War History: Carried a total of 765,429 military personnel. Sailed a total of 569,429 miles (916,407 km). Carried up to 15,000 troops at one time. Carried wounded returning to the United States. Transported Winston Churchill three times to conferences. Carried 12,886 G.I. brides and children.
The records of ships used to carry troops to their theaters of operations were destroyed intentionally in 1951. "According to our [U. S. National Archives] records, in 1951 the Department of the Army destroyed all passenger lists, manifests, logs of vessels, and troop movement files of United States Army Transports for World War II." (Sorry, but there was no word on why the records were destroyed.) Thus there is no longer an official record of who sailed on what ship, though there are still valuable sources that can be found. So this web page is an informal collecting ground for information about troop ship crossings.
Source (WWII): http://troopships.pier90.org/ships/q/queenmary/default.htm
Source (Museum): http://www.queenmary.com/
Hello John,
thank you for the background of the Queen Mary during the WWII.
Werner
Hello Joel,
it helped we to understand. Thank you,
Werner
Thank you Don,
Werner
Good to hear Werner. I should add that strains of senility are most certainly setting in now. I mentioned earlier being aboard the QM on a voyage to Hawaii when I was younger. When I thought a little more on it (and naturally after I posted), I realized it was my mother who had sailed on the QM on a trip to Europe (France, Germany and Switzerland) immediately after the war. The vessel I sailed on when young was the SS Lurline, part of the Matson Line, a ship that is familiar to anyone who has sailed into Hawaiian ports from the west coast of the U.S.
Back to the losing my mind part. Have you ever caught the lyrics to the song "Comfortably Numb" by the British rock outfit Pink Floyd? Those abstract verses come into my mind every now and then. With its eerie, morose backdrop, musically melancholy in feel, I often see myself drifting back. Then the damn alarm rings, the jackhammers sound once again, and I have to jump in the car to join millions of other SoCal commuters fighting their way through vehicular mayhem just to keep the taxman happy. Call it another day. <g> Jb
Comfortably Numb�
(Gilmour, Waters)
Hello?
Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me
Is there anyone at home?
Come on now
I hear you're feeling down
Well I can ease your pain
Get you on your feet again
Relax
I'll need some information first
Just the basic facts
Can you show me where it hurts?
There is no pain, you are receding
A distant ship's smoke on the horizon
You are only coming through in waves
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying
When I was a child I had a fever
My hands felt just like two balloons
Now I've got that feeling once again
I can't explain, you would not understand
This is not how I am
I have become comfortably numb
Ok
Just a little pin-prick
There'll be no more .. aaaaaah!
But you may feel a little sick
Can you stand up?
I do believe it's working, good
That'll keep you going for the show
Come on it's time to go
There is no pain, you are receding
A distant ship's smoke on the horizon
You are only coming through in waves
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying
When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown, the dream is gone
I have become comfortably numb
JB, Way off-topic. i finally got thru all my mail from the last few
days, and it is very late so my very last e-mail. Where in SoCal. I grew
up in WestLos Angeles, about 5 miles from Santa Monica Beach, and just below
the Morman Temple, boy I sure miss that nice weather there. and that rat
race is everywear, at home it is nice and quite but 10 minutes in the car
and you are caught in quicksand getting nowhere and outside it dark and
dreary day in day out, Thank God for our love ones they keep us sane.
Ann Marie
I'm a ways away from L.A. but I know the SM area fairly well. Vehicular mayhem everywhere? Tell me no! I've also spent a number of years in a true one horse town right here in SoCal, without as much as a single traffic light or fast food restaurant. Hard to believe such things still exist in this metropolis of metropolises, but it's true.
Feel free to hit me up offline doll. Glad to see you have become an active member of the list. Don't forget to wrack up the 8 ball with LDS over there. You simply have to get to the bottom of that hang-up and let us know what it is. Consider it your momentary mission. 
I probably should cool it for a bit too. Whenever I go on vacation I quickly tilt the 60/40 English-to-German posting percentage back to 75/25, where it used to be back in the Rumpster days of yore. In polite silence, our German friends are waiting for me to get back to work (or hit by a bus) so they can get back to business. Trust me that includes some Yanks too! Either that or they're trying to decipher the twists and turns in my English and wondering if it is actually Esperanto. I know Karl does [jk Karl :-)]. By the way, we refer to this H-L fraternity of ours as a Kuhdorf, so don't forget that. It carries a unique Hannoverian seal of approval.
Ah well, all good things must end. And we all know Arbeit macht das Leben s��.
Jb