Arthur L. Wells

Arthur L. Wells was born in February 1924 in East Orange, New Jersey. His father, a sergeant in the Army in World War I, had been stationed in New York during his service. In his senior year of high school, Wells and four of his friends decided to join the Coast Guard. Three of them were accepted; one joined the army, and one joined the marines. In March 1943, Wells was ordered to boot camp in Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, New York. As part of his training, he was assigned to shore patrol duty in Coney Island. Boot camp consisted of physical training, skill classes, and a strict schedule. One of the required classes was boxing. Wells boxed the famous Jack Dempsey, who was a Coast Guard lieutenant in charge of physical education at Manhattan Beach.

When Wells was done with training, he was sent to the Pacific, where he was stationed on the USS Belfast, named for Belfast, Maine. His vessel was a part of a flotilla of six ships traveling together as an anti-submarine group. During shakedown training in California, Wells’ anti-submarine warfare crew made thirteen training kills out of fifteen attacks on a submarine. Their ship was reassigned to a killer squadron that went out to search for enemy submarines. Wells’ journey started in California. He got to see Eleanor Roosevelt in New Caledonia, and was then off to Australia.

At the time, a Japanese code was broken, and part of Wells’ crew’s duty was to intercept supply submarines coming from and going to Japan. He took part in a successful hedgehog attack on a submarine, but he and his crew never received official credit for it. The squadron’s main job was to escort frigate ships. Wells witnessed his first Kamikaze attack while escorting ships to the Philippines, and recalled one American ship sinking in the area.

On December 15th, 1944, Wells’ ship sailed back to the United States through the Panama Canal, and eventually docked on the East Coast. There was a bizarre rumor going around that Hitler was heading to the United States with six submarines armed with buzz bombs. His alleged plan was to buzz bomb the whole East Coast. Since this never happened, crews were sent to Boston to replace old parts on their ships with newer updated parts. Wells was then sent to Kodiak, Alaska in 1945. He was stationed in Cold Bay, which he described as “an ideal spot to transfer ships to Russia.” Cold Bay was next to a cloud-covered mountain which made for good cover from enemies. During this time, the war was over in Europe but still on with the Japanese.

Wells and his crew teamed up with the Soviets to train a Soviet crew. Since the Soviets were already somewhat trained, they took to the ship well. Wells was responsible for helping to teach them how to use their guns. One day, they were deployed out on the ocean to fire at targets pulled by a tugboat. Instead of shooting the targets, the Russian crew members were shooting at the tugboat, but were stopped by an interpreter.

Wells recalled most of the Russian crew members being “just kids… younger kids [than us].” He also recalled a wild party that the Russian crew had for the Russian and American sailors aboard the ship. The ship was later decommissioned and transferred to Russian control, and American personnel were no longer allowed aboard the ship, which was eventually scrapped in 1960.

Upon his return from Alaska, Wells was assigned to the Captain of the Port headquarters, and patrolling the docks of Manasquan Inlet, New Jersey with jeeps. Following the Japanese surrender, he was transferred to Bangor, Washington. Wells wrote a letter to the commander and was transferred closer to home, at Fort Hancock in Sandy Hook, New Jersey. During his time in Sandy Hook, his main duty was signing out fishing boats. One night, a fishing boat went missing, and he and two other men had to go look for it. It was a freezing and dark winter night, and Wells was worried the heavy ice would keep the boat under if it flipped. They never found it, but another ship eventually did. 

Wells was discharged in 1946. His first crew reunion was in 1954 at the Hotel Douglas in Newark, New Jersey. Out of two hundred men in the crew, about twenty-five showed up. A second attempted reunion was in 1964, but no one responded to the invitations, although eight men showed. In 1988, Wells and his wife went on vacation to Belfast, Maine. The next town over had a large marine museum, and in it was an article about his ship. This made Wells think of his crew; he decided to contact them and began to have reunions every year after. The last reunion was in 2003 at the Hyatt Hotel. Wells spent four years in the service and received the New Jersey Distinguished Service Medal among other decorations.

Arthur L. Wells passed away on September 8th, 2017.

Additional Resource:

• Google Books – Coast Guard Combat Veterans: Semper Paratus