Aerographer's Mate 3rd Class
Donald Schuster
Service Branch: United States Coast Guard
Combat Action: WWII - North Atlantic
Home Town: Phillips
Military Specialty: Weather Observer
Unit: USS Woonsocket
Citations and Awards: - National Defense Service Ribbon
- Honorable Service Emblem
- Coast Guard Good Conduct Medal
The North Atlantic can be most
inhospitable. Rough seas with fierce gales, driving rainstorms, massive ice
bergs, and treacherous swells threaten commercial shipping and military vessels,
alike. The Woonsocket’s mission was
to patrol their sector and alert any commercial or Allied military vessels entering
it to such threats or any others that might surface. In the last months of
World War II, it was AG3 Don Schuster’s job to record and report sector weather
conditions and ensure that Woonsocket
broadcast the most accurate, up-to-date navigational data.
Typically, time on station lasted
about 30 days. Then, they would return to the Boston Navy Yard for refueling,
re-provisioning, and any necessary repairs. Recording weather observations
isn’t all that difficult or dangerous… in good weather. Bad weather can be
dangerous anywhere, but at sea, it can be particularly deadly. Imagine being a
storm chaser…on a boat…in the middle of the ocean. In order to get precise
observations – temperature, pressure, humidity, precipitation types &
amounts, visibility, wind speed & direction – the Woonsocket not only chased storms but also sailed into them. Gathering
data required that Don to go out on deck, in the storm.
During one voyage, the seas were
so heavy that just staying on station and upright required expending the bulk
of the Woonsocket’s fuel supply. Without
enough fuel to make it to Boston, the ship was forced to put in at Reykjavík,
Iceland and refuel. It seems that “…any
port in a storm…” is more than just a figure of speech. Don didn’t come
under hostile fire as did those who survived combat, but surviving the eye of a
hostile North Atlantic storm was extremely hazardous duty, all the same.
Semper paratus, Don.
