Recently in the Gloucester Times a photo of my dad Anthony "Mooter" Albert appeared in a feature "
Looking Back". In it Mary Rhinelander McCarl asked, "do you know the ballcarrier?". That got me going, My dad who fished with his father during the summers,went on to Tilton Prep following his graduation from Gloucester High School. He was the starting halfback and year later went on to Villanova where he continued his football career while majoring in business. During his freshman year the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the US was in the war. He soon joined the Navy and became a aviator,radioman 1st class while serving in squadron VP-53 flying PBY's. He served in both theaters, the first half of his Navy career his squadron was on U-Boat patrols in the Caribbean and after the U-Boat menace was under control his squadron was in the South Pacific preforming night time bombing raids and air/sea rescue. So here is a young man who's the son of a fisherman who flew through the air with a football assigned to a flying boat!
That's about all I knew about his WWII exploits until I read an article in the American Legion magazine back in 1978. That was a start of some incredible set of circumstances that connects my father to the crew of a German U-Boat and their highly decorated captain and....... how Hitler lost the war!
Much more later.
My dad, captain of the Class C State Champion 9-0-1 Gloucester Fishermen.
One of two US Navy Air medals my dad received during WWII.
Posts
