USS Newell and My Dad’s Coast Guard Scrapbook

My mom passed away last month. She was 97. It’s hard to believe she was 97! My dad passed away in 2015 at 95. This time we all needed to go through and keep all the mementos that we cherished before handing the house over to the next door neighbors who cared for mom the last few years. Both my parents were in the military in WWII. Mom had a great Navy scrapbook and Dad had two well documented Coast Guard scrapbooks. We think we will be donating them somewhere but haven’t figured it out yet. We have dog tags and medals, and even an officer’s well preserved jacket. There is also a letter from 1939 requesting special permission for dad to enlist from his father because he was underage. The history of the USS Newell is well documented, but my dad never talked about it. He was in the engine room and their convoy took direct hits. He always said he would never take a cruise across the Atlantic because they made several during the war to North Africa and the Mediterranean. The photographs tell a story in time - we especially like the Washington DC and Wisconsin items. He was very proud of his twenty one years in the Coast Guard. His story is a great one to tell.