Veterans Portrait Series | Mickey Strand

Frederick V. Knight Jr.
United States Coast Guard
Radio Technician Petty Officer Second Class
WorldWar II

Frederick V. Knight Jr. was born on March 5, 1921, in Medford, Massachusetts, to Frederick V. Knight Sr. and Norah Jean Levers. He graduated from Mechanics Arts High School in Boston in June 1938. After high school, he worked for two years at New England Laundries in Somerville as a mechanic and extractor operator. He briefly worked for Manning, Maxwell, and Moore before securing a position at Watertown Arsenal, where he assembled 90mm anti-aircraft guns. He married his wife, Dorothy, on March 29, 1942. 
In October 1942, Fred enlisted in the Coast Guard after seeing an excessively long line at the Navy recruiting office. He completed eight weeks of boot camp at Manhattan Beach, New York. Because of his experience building radios, he was sent to radio school for 26 weeks in Atlantic City, New Jersey, at the Virginia Hotel, which had been converted into a housing and training facility. 
His first active-duty station was at Fire Island, parallel to Long Island, where he worked at a direction-finder station. He spent about three months there searching radio frequencies to locate enemy submarines, using a large wheel to turn the antenna.
Knight was next assigned to the 165-foot Thetis-class patrol boat, Pandora (WPC-113), based out of Staten Island. He served as a Radio Man Third Class (RM3), performing convoy duty between New York and Key West. During this time, he experienced severe seasickness until a nearby escort vessel was torpedoed, which triggered "battle quarters" and snapped him into focus. He spent about six months on this assignment, copying "Fox" schedules and monitoring battle frequencies.
After the Coast Guard identified the need for technicians, RM3 Knight was reclassified as a radio technician and assigned to Federal Electric in Newark, New Jersey. He spent six months living like a civilian, receiving per diem and residing in town while inspecting military radio equipment from various companies in the New York and New Jersey area for use by the Department of War.
He then attended Loran (Long Range Navigation Radio) school in Groton, Connecticut. After graduation, he was deployed to the Pacific, traveling through Hawaii and Saipan to the small island of Miyagi, off the coast of Okinawa. While the fight for the Okinawa Main Island was still ongoing, his unit built and operated a Loran station using high-power transmitters and Quonset huts shielded with copper screening. Petty Officer Knight was promoted to Second Class. RM2 Knight operated the station until earning enough ASR service points to leave Japan in December 1945. He traveled by ship to Portland, Oregon, and took a train across the country, celebrating Christmas aboard in Billings, Montana. He was honorably discharged in Boston in January 1946.
Fred continued working in the electronics and engineering industry and used his GI Bill to attend Northeastern University, earning degrees in engineering and management. While in school, he worked at the MIT Radiation Lab for 5 years as an electronics technician. He then joined a small private company, Ultra Mechanism/Ultrasonic, working on radar and autopilot systems for the Marines. Fred moved to San Diego to work for General Dynamics as an engineer for 27 years, retiring in August 1982. Fred and Dorothy had 2 children, 5 grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren, and 17 great-great-grandchildren.