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DC John Keyes
to remember
Wilson, Sloan, LT USCG(Ret).
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Contact Info
Date of Passing May 25, 2003
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Last Known Activity:
Born in Norwalk, Connecticut, Wilson graduated from Harvard University in 1942. An avid sailor and navigator, he joined the Coast Guard in 1942, following Pearl Harbor. Commissioned a Reserve Ensign, Sloan Wilson first reported aboard the USCGC Tampa (WPG-48) on the Greenland Patrol (conducted 12 convoy escort missions between Iceland, Greenland, and Nova Scotia). Wilson was then given command of the trawler USCGC Nogak (WYP-171). His novel "Ice Brothers" is based on his experiences with the Nogak.
He then took command of the Coast Guard manned Army supply ship, USS FS-158 in the South Pacific (Long Beach to New Guinea). This experience is captured in his first novel, "Voyage To Somewhere". He then commanded the Army tanker USS Y-14. His experiences were penned into the novel "Pacific Interlude".
“The FS-158 that I commanded was on the edge of Leyte Gulf and we shot down a Japanese torpedo plane that attacked us,” said Sloan. “I received a battle star for that.” - Sloan Wilson, 2000
After World War II, Wilson worked as a reporter for the Providence Journal in Rhode Island, a reporter for Time-Life, he published stories in The New Yorker, and worked as a college professor at University at Buffalo, The State University of New York.
Sloan Wilson Novels:
Voyage to Somewhere (1947)
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1955)
A Summer Place (1958)
A Sense of Values (1961)
Georgie Winthrop (1963)
Janus Island (1967)
Away from It All (1970)
All the Best People (1971)
Small Town (1978)
Ice Brothers (1979)
Greatest Crime (1980)
Pacific Interlude (1982)
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit II (1984)
Upon his death from alzheimers disease, he was cremated and scattered from his former ship the Tampa.
Other Comments:
FS-158
The Coast Guard-manned Army vessel FS-158 was commissioned 17 May 1944 at Los Angeles, California, with LT Sloan Wilson, USCGR, as first commanding officer. LT Wallace E. Cooke, USCGR succeeded him on 26 September 1945. LTJG Robert J. Pate, Jr., USCGR subsequently succeeded him. She was assigned to and operated in the Southwest Pacific area.