Charles E. Dixon, Jr - US Merchant Marine Academy -  1945 - Kingspoint, NY  

1945 – 1946 Enlisted US NR 5 Feb 1945 – 2 Jan 1946 (10 months 25 Days)

                                                                Cadet Dixon

They closed the school because of the WWI. A Navel representative took the Cadets to New Orleans, LA, loaded-up  on a ship and sailed to the Panama Canal Zone; where they loaded on the SS Hat Creek and sailed around in the Pacific Ocean fueling the Navel Ships in Kwajalein Atoll. The atoll lies in the Ralik Chain, 2, 100 nautical miles (3900 km) southwest of Honolulu, Hawaii. 

     

Cadet Charles E. Dixon, Jr. 1945

                                                                                             

L-R: Charles E. Dixon, Jr; ?; ?                                                                Cadet Kelley

           Panama Canal Zone  –  Have to have a drink before boarding SS Hat Creek

                           L-R Chief Engineer; Cadet Charles E. Dixon, Jr; Third Assistant

                     “Engineer and Assistant from California” Cadet Dixon from Florida”

SS Hat Creek – T2 Tanker

      SS Hat Creek, namesake: Hat Creek, builder Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company, Mobile, Alabama,
laid down: 1943, launched 1943. Fate: scraped 1983.
General characterististics, (22,231 t),
Length 523 ft,
beam 68 ft,
draft 30 ft,
installed 7,240 shp (5,399 KW)
Propulsion: turbo-electric transmission,
single screw,
speed 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)

                                                        Range: 12,600 nmi (23,300 km)