This Web Page is intended to cover the "Call to Active Duty" of the men of the "51st Fleet Division " of the Organized Reserves of the U.S. Navy in the spring of 1941. And the subsequent service of these men aboard the Naval Ammunition ship, U.S.S. Kilauea AE-4, later renamed the U.S.S. Mount Baker AE-4. The AE-4 saw duty in the ' The American Theater of Operations, The European Theater of Operations and the Pacific Theater of Operations' during World War II.

I, Thomas J. Mara, was a member of the 51st and a member of the crew of the AE-4 until
April of 1945 when I left for Gunners Mate Electric and Hydraulic School in Washington, D.C.
I was a Chief Gunners Mate at that time.

From the Division of Naval History, Ship's History Section, Navy Department......"Medals and
citations are seldom awarded to ammunition ships---except posthumously. Ranking as
high priority targets for enemy planes and submarines, duty aboard them required steel nerves as they went about the vital job of supplying the fightings ships with the sinews of war".
 

The Merchant Ship MS SURPRISE was aquired by the US NAVY on 11/14/1940 while it was being built by Tampa Shipbuilding Co., Tampa, Florida and was refitted as a US Navy Ammunition Ship  at the Sun Dry Dock and Ship Building Company in Mobile, Alabama.
 
 

SHIP'S STATISTICS

            BEAM                                                                          62 feet

            SPEED                                                                          14 knots

            DISPLACEMENT                                                    6100 tons

            COMPLEMENT                                                          16 officers and 249 men

3/20/41: The U.S.S. Kilauea was placed in Commision in Ordinary at 1930 at the Alabama
            Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Co., Mobile, Alabama.

3/28/41: The "51st FLEET DIVISION, ORGANIZED RESERVES"  was called to active
            duty at Cincinnati, Ohio with orders to report to U.S. Naval Training Station at Norfolk
            Virginia for training and later assignment to the U.S.S. Kilauea in Mobile, Alabama.

4/1-30/41: A few officers and enlisted men (other than men of the 51st) continued to report for
            duty one at a time. Among the enlisted men, there was one man namely Nordeen,
            George G.  Y3c, USNR 411 39 31 who would later drown  while we were tied up
            to a Quay in North Africa.The British picked him up and attempted to revive him. Their
            method of resucitation was unique. About four British  sailors had him on a stretcher
            and as they moved him down the Quay they had the stretcher going in a  'Teeter-
            Totter' fashion. They did not save him. Snap shots of the burial are available.
 

4/1/41-5/14/41: Enlisted personnel from the 51st undergoing training at the Norfolk Training
            Station.

           NOTE: While in Training Station, I ( Thomas J. Mara) failed the swimming test and the
            rumor stated that if I didn't qualify to swim the Navy would send me home. Iwanted
            in the Navy so I gave my 'dog tag' to a Buddy and he qualified for me. As of 1999 I still
            can't swim.
 

5/15/41: Enlisted personnel of the 51st reported on board for duty as named in the
              following letter:

The below named men transferred this date to the USS KILAUEA for duty. Auth: Comfive 6th End. AE4/ND5 (M:LE) of 23 April, 1941.

ALDEN, John Paul; BABER, John Page;  BAILEY, Lloyd Robert ; BAKER, Hildreth Leon ; BEATTY, John ; BEINKER, Frederick Joseph ;  BRADY, Edward Lewis ; BUCKLEY, Wilbur Dale ;  CARPENTER, John Donald ;  CARTER, Harold Elmer ; CENTNER** , Albert Francis  ;  CHRISTMAN, John ; COLE, Joseph Henry ; COOPER, Stanley Newton ; DAVIS, Paul ;
DEAN, Dallas ; DE SERISY, George Arthur ; DIXON**, Richard Howard, Jr. ; EVANS,
Thomas Johnston ; FAULHABER, Charles Bernard ; FERGUSON, Lonnie ; FINKBEINER***, Albert James ; FREDERICK, Albert Francis ; FUERSICH, Edward Bernard ; GOLDSBURY , Kenneth Charles ; GRECHANUCK ; Eugene Charles ; GRIES, Leo Martin ; GRUNDHOFER, Chester Joseph ; HAYES, Paul Norman ; HENSLEY**, George William, Jr. ; HICKLE, Patrick Jerome ; HOEBBEL, Robert Stewart ; HOGUE, Milton ; HOLMES, Richard Joseph ; HUBER, Marvin August ; KATTWINKEL***, Earl Tilden ; KELLY, James Robert ; KYDE, LeRoy ; LEE, Robert Donald ; MAIER, Erwin Herbert ; MARA***, Thomas J. ; MARSH, Edward Joseph ; MAUNTEL Raplh Earl ; MAXWELL, Rudolph Neff ; McCAFFERY, WilliamMichael, Jr. ; McHALE*, James Valentine ; MILLER, Robert Carl ; MOHN, Robert Vincent ;CENTNER, Arthur William ;
KOEBEL, William Charles Henry ;
 
 
 
 
 
 

Note: This is an incomplete list and the list will be updated frequently.

* Denotes fatality aboard ship as a result of accident.

** Denotes fatalities of original crew, after transfer to other ships, as a result of enemy action or  other perils of the sea.
 

    ***As of 7/1/99 Mara, Rosenfelder, Kattwinkel, Sauer and their wives have been meeting quarterly since about 1948. Finkbeiner and his wife met with us until their recent passing aways.
 
 

On 17 June 1941 the KILAUEA began operating out of Norfolk, Virginia, servicing combatant vessels on the East Coast, in the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Newfoundland. During August 1941 she
made a cruise to Bermuda, Guantanamo and San Juan. between 18 September 1941 and 12 June 1942 the ship made three runs to Argentia, Newfoundland, returning to Norfolk after each cruise.