NAV EX 1st QTR 2018 NavEx 1st Qtr 2018 - Draft 7a | Page 37

Finally, after five years of duty his service time
was coming to a close. After stints on Constitution
Wharf in Boston, the Coast Guard Cutters Spencer
and Ingham it was time for Quartermaster Warren
James to be processed out and sent home. He was sent
by train to Staten Island, New York and in January of
1947 received his honorable discharge.
Warren proudly displays his well earned Honorable Discharge.
reached out to her and when I identified myself she
remembered me so well that she even asked how my
wife was. I told her I’ld been trying to reach Casper
in Chicago and asked for information about him. On
a sad note, Casper Fries developed Alzheimer’s disease
and he had no recollection of me. I know that he’s a
subscriber of the United States Coast Guard magazine.
I believe he is still alive because I have not seen his
name on the obituary listing”.
Warren continues to be involved in fellowship
events and has attended USCG events in Boston, the
US Coast Guard Academy, Norfolk, Virginia and
Wilmington. He is a member of various veteran’s
organizations and belongs to the American Legion.
After the war, Warren was employed for 25 years
with the ARMA Defense plant in Brooklyn which
eventually relocated to Garden City, New York. He
worked his way up in the accounting department to
the position of assistant controller. However with the
sea in his veins he had a hankering to be on the water
so he tells us that he worked as a Captain operating the
ferries from Bay Shore to Fire Island. “Coincidently
the house that I purchased happened to belong to the
owner of the Ferry Company which employed me as
a deck hand before the war. I began working for the
company during the summers before the war so I was
familiar with it and it’s operations”.
Captain Gus Pagels of the Fair Harbor Ferry
Company asked Warren to be one of his Captains. He
accepted and began running ferries from Bay Shore
to Fair Harbor, Fire Island during the summers while
attending Pace during the winters.
After a time “bumming” around and getting
settled Warren entered Pace Institute located in
downtown Manhattan which is now Pace University.
After being discharged from the Coast Guard he wasn’t
sure what his career path was going to be but after
seriously thinking about it for awhile he decided on
Pace Institute/ University and studied accounting and
finance. He pursued his education under the G.I. Bill.
Warren reminisces about the many close friends
he made while he was in the service. He tells us, “there
was one fellow on the Coast Guard Cutter Mistletoe..
We enlisted together and went to New Orleans and
became close. I lost touch with him and he passed
away after the war. His name was Charles Ilchert. We
called him Stumpy because he was short and stocky.
He served on the Mistletoe as a Fireman”.
Warren attended many reunions all over the
country. Today he still gets invited to some but it is
difficult to do the traveling at 94 years old.
The last fellow serviceman that he recalls was a
man he met while we were serving together on the USS
Eugene. He was a gunner’s mate from Chicago whose
name was Casper Fries.
“Casper would send me Christmas cards every
As we stood in his den Quartermaster James recounted many
year until he stopped for couple of years in row. I of his experiences, showed pictures and introduced us to his
decided to try to reach out to him, but it was to no extensive collection of books about his interests.
avail. However I did have his girlfriend’s number so I
OR express
Continued on Page 38
37