DE387
WDE487
DER387
DE387
WDE487
DER387
E-mail received Friday, May 22, 2020
Hello, my name is Lance Costa, my Dad, Charles C. Costa served aboard the Vance.
When it was re-commissioned as WDE 487 on 9 May 1952 in Coral Springs, Florida.
In fact I have a photo taken, a wide panoramic, of the entire crew aboard the Vance upon her re-commissioning.
My Dad was a Store Keeper.
Unfortunately, he passed Nov 18th, 2019, so I can't ask him how long he was aboard, but he did do a video record of his military service for a gentleman from the National Archives, and his video was put into official records for WW II. He was in the Navy during the war, and re-joined the military by becoming a Store Keeper in the Coast Guard. He subsequently served 18 years in the Coast Guard, retired in Maine in 1966 or 67 and built his own house with my Mom where he lived until he died. He was originally from California, and grew up on the water.
I am also a veteran, and my Brother and I always listened with fascination to all of his war stories and time in the military. Details, however, were never a big concern for us, but as life would have it, now that he is gone, I find myself searching for more about his time in the Coast Guard and his time in the Navy during WWII. This picture of him on the Vance always perplexed me because I always kept looking for my Dad in the picture. Well, much to my dismay, he had penned in a tiny arrow pointing to himself in the picture, and after 50 years of looking at this picture (I'm 55 and figured I would have to have been at least five years old to understand such things, lol) I finally realized, and of course after Dad is gone, that I now know exactly where he is in the picture!
Anyway, he passed in his sleep at the ICU at Eastern Maine Medical Center surrounded by family and friends, he was 94 years old, and his mind was still sharp as ever. He died of kidney failure. I flew back from California to say goodbye, and be with my Mom. We are losing so mush history as more and more WWII veterans pass on. At least my Dad was able to put his stories on record.
