Soldiers pose at Fort Hancock's salute guns on the Parade Ground, c. 1942. NPS/Gateway NRA
The high water mark
World War II saw Fort Hancock's peacetime population of approximately 800 swell tenfold, to approximately 8,000 by 1945. Below are the stories of some of those who served both in the military and civilians who lived or worked at the Fort during the war years.
*Various Veterans from Grains of Sand Newsletter, Winter 1989, pdf*
Vincenzo J. Alfano, 7th Coast Artillery, pdf
Martin Becker, 7th Coast Artillery, pdf
Ed Biedermann, 7th and 245th Coast Artillery, 1941-45, pdf
Louis Brignola, post barber, and Joseph Tomaine, civilian employee, pdf
Carl Erickson, U.S. Coast Guard, pdf
Robert Fullerton, 245th Coast Artillery, pdf
General Philip S. Gage, New York Harbor Defenses Commander, 1940-44, pdf
Juanita Gooch Giovenco, Fort Hancock Soldiers' Daughter and Wife, pdf
Sal Giovenco, Fort Hancock Soldier, pdf
Ruth Weaver Halpern, daughter of hospital administrator, pdf
Mary Heckendorn, Women's Army Corps, pdf
Loretta Hoffman, Women's Army Corps, 1225th Army Service unit, WWII
George F. Horn, 52nd Coast Artillery, pdf
Ed Johnson, Battery D, 245th Coast Artillery, pdf