Wilson Edward Weckel - W8AL

Information provided by his son Richard Weckel

My dad was Navy radioman during WWI, and later was a RO on the Lakes.

After his discharge he got a commercial license and shipped aboard the "Big Three" - S.S. JUNIATA, S.S. OCTARORA, S.S. TIONESTA.  I believe this was in 1921, 22 and 23.  My mother, a passenger, met him on a cruise about 1921, and they were married in Duluth the next year.

He also shipped on Horace Dodge's yacht DELPHINE, which, surprisingly enough, is still sailing in the Med as a charter yacht.  She was also the WWII "flagship" of Admiral Ernie King, moored in the Potomac River all during the war.  

He had command of the Naval Reserve unit here in Canton, Ohio between the wars.  When WWII started he was physically handicapped and had to walk with two canes.  ROs were as scarce as hen's teeth, so, in desperation, S.S. THEODORE ROOSEVELT signed him - on articles.  She was an excursion steamer running from Cleveland to Cedar Point and on moonlight cruises.  He was on the ROOSEVELT in 1944 and 1945.  I sailed with him as an Ordinary in 1944 when I was fifteen.  

The Canton Radio Club now has his W8AL call letters, and has his Obituary on their website.

There is another photo of him in the  shack of the S.S. THEODORE ROOSEVELT, but it hasn't turned up yet.

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