Years later, while watching the America's Cup races at the San Diego Yacht Club, I met a USCG Admiral. I introduced myself and told him about my WWII duty aboard the "Mohican". I told him that was the only good part of my enlistment. During the war you couldn't take photos of the ships we were on. I asked him if it was possible to find a picture of the Coast Guard cutter "Mohican". He said he was going to Coast Guard headquarters the next week and it so happened that he had a friend in the Coast Guard Archives. About a month later, I received a 3 ft. long mailing tube from Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington containing a complete set of building plans and photos of the 110 foot ice breaking class tugs built in 1943. I thanked the Admiral and immediately built a scale radio-controlled model of my beloved "Mohican". I was SO happy!

All my life I've loved tug boats. In 1987 I designed and built 4 sizes of mini tugboats. I sell the building plans throughout the world by mail order. I subscribe to Work Boat magazine. One day while reading the magazine I came across a picture of a 110 foot steel tug being rebuilt by a shipyard in New Orleans, LA. The article told about this particular tug as being the former USCG cutter, "Mohican" from WWII. I was so excited that I immediately called Bisso Marine Co. in New Orleans. I asked to speak to someone who knew about the new tug, "Darlene Bisso". The lady said, "my name is Darlene, what would you like to know?" I told her about my being stationed aboard the "Mohican" in 1944 and 1945. I told her that my wife, Carol and I were coming to the Work Boat convention at the Convention Center in New Orleans. I asked if we could stop in for a visit of the newly refurbished tug. She said "my husband, Cappy Bisso, the owner of the company would love to meet you and show you our new tug". When we arrived they just couldn't believe that some fifty years ago I was a Motor Machinist Mate and served on the "Mohican". I was really excited about going aboard the old ship. He took us down below to the engine room, where I had stood many hours watching over the engines and generators that run the ship. The old main engines were gone, replaced by brand new, shiny higher horse power diesels. The auxilary generators and evaporators and compressors were the original ones that I had worked on and they were still, after being rebuilt, in good condition. When we went up the ladder to the bridge, the first thing I said was "Where's the helm?" Cappy picked up this small box in his hand with a long cable leading from it and said, "this is the ship's control system." I asked "where is the ship's wheel? I would like to buy it from you." He said, "my 21 year old son has it mounted on his bedroom wall and you will have to kill him to get it." I had this disappointed look on my face, I guess. He then said, "we removed ten of the original bronze portholes during the refurbishing. I would like you to have one." When we went down in the storage yard to find them, he said, "I hope they're still there". After a few minutes we found them and he gave me one. I tried to pick it up but it weighed 65 pounds. About that time I began to cry. I was embarrassed. We thanked Cappy and his lovely wife, Darlene for the visit and the great gift.

In the fall of 1999 I designed a 24 foot houseboat with a sleeping loft. My son, Mike and I built the boat in about six months. Mike and I spent many hours together removing about 20 coats of old paint from the porthole, polished it nice and bright, brass and bronze, and he and I installed it in the center of the aft bulkhead of the sleeping loft. I enjoy lying in the bunk and looking out through that WWII porthole and thinking what I've always known, I AM TRULY THE LUCKIEST MAN IN THE WORLD!!! God bless America".