Explore This Park

• Learn About the Park
  • History & Culture
    • People

World War II at Fort Hancock

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

NPS/Gateway NRA

The high water mark

World War II saw Fort Hancock's peacetime population of approximately 800 swell tenfold, to approximately 8,000 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, 1225^th Army Service unit, WWII

George F. Horn, 52^nd 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.

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

Colonel Henry Neri, 245th Coast Artillery Battery Commander, WWII, 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, 1225^th Army Service unit, pdf

Anthony Staniewicz, 7th Coast Artillery and MPS, pdf

Robert Truesdale, new Army draftee, pdf

William Tuting, Henry Tuting, and Fred Schneider, WWII 245th Coast Artillery, Battery Kingman operations and daily duties, 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

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Members, 1934-1938, pdf

 

WAC basketball team at Fort Hancock's YMCA.

NPS/Gateway NRA Museum Collection