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Gateway National Recreation Area Tested at the Sandy Hook Proving Ground this cannon was the world's largest in 1900.
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Gateway National Recreation Area
World War II at Fort Hancock
Soldiers pose on salute gun at flagpole on Fort Hancock Parade Ground, c. 1942.

NPS/Gateway NRA

Soldiers pose at Fort Hancock's salute guns on the Parade Ground, c. 1942.

World War II saw Fort Hancock's peacetime population of approximately 800 swell to 12,000 soldiers by 1945. Below are the stories of some of those who served both in the military and civilians who lived or worked at the Fort during the war years.

*Various Veterans from Grains of Sand Newsletter, Winter 1989, pdf*

Vincenzo J. Alfano, 7th Coast Artillery, pdf

Martin Becker, 7th Coast Artillery, pdf 

Ed Biedermann, 7th and 245th Coast Artillery, 1941-45, pdf

Louis Brignola, post barber, and Joseph Tomaine, civilian employee, pdf

William Conover, U.S. Coast Guard, pdf

Carl Erickson, U.S. Coast Guard, pdf 

Robert Fullerton, 245th Coast Artillery, pdf

General Philip S. Gage, New York Harbor Defenses Commander, 1940-44, pdf

Juanita Gooch Giovenco, Fort Hancock Soldiers' Daughter and Wife, pdf

Sal Giovenco, Fort Hancock Soldier, pdf

Ruth Weaver Halpern, daughter of hospital administrator, pdf

Mary Heckendorn, Women's Army Corps, pdf 

Loretta Hoffman, Women's Army Corps, 1225th Army Service unit, WWII 

George F. Horn, 52nd Coast Artillery, pdf

Ed Johnson, Battery D, 245th Coast Artillery, pdf 

Julian Jones, Civilian draftsman, pdf 

 
Soldiers at Fort Hancock, 1941.

NPS image donated by family of Joseph Tancos.

Soldiers at Fort Hancock, 1941.

Peter Kennedy, Signal Corps civilian (radar), pdf

Seymour Kurtz, 245th Coast Artillery, pdf

Benjamin Mandel, 1225th Medical Detachment, pdf 

Richard Marquardt, pdf

Bernard Martin, firefighter, pdf 

Margaret Wright McCausland, Post Commissary Civilian Employee, pdf 

Theodore Narozanick, soldier and Fort Hancock baseball team player, pdf 

Colonel Henry Neri, 245th Coast Artillery, 1929-1947, pdf

James Pike, railroad engineer, 1917-1949, pdf 

Fred Schneider, 245th Coast Artillery, pdf 

Fred Schneider, self-interview, 245th Coast Artillery, 1940-45, pdf

May Siciliano, Civilian draftsman, pdf 

Charles Spinella, 1225th Army Service unit, pdf

Anthony Staniewicz, 7th Coast Artillery and MPS, pdf  

Robert Truesdale, new Army draftee, pdf 

Fred Vorhees, Post Engineer's Office (civilian employee), pdf

Herman Warnke, 245th Coast Artillery, pdf 

Lt. Colonel Willis, CMTC in 1934, Coast Artillery 1939-1943

 
Fort Hancock's WAC basketball team pose for a photo in YMCA.
NPS/Gateway NRA Museum Collection
WAC basketball team at Fort Hancock's YMCA.

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Fort Wadsworth

Did You Know?
Fort Wadsworth,located on Staten Island at the Narrows, is one of the oldest military sites in the nation. This site has controlled the entrance to New York Harbor since the Revolutionary War.
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Last Updated: January 23, 2012 at 10:27 MST