Robert (Chuck) Collins Reed was born on 10/05/26 and passed 9/12/07. He was a US Coast Guard mariner assigned to the US Merchant Marine convoys.
The Murmansk voyage aboard the SS Henry Bacon was his only Arctic Convoy run. He was an 18 year old utility-pantryman aboard the Henry Bacon. On 23rd February 1945 the captain and crew saved 19 Norwegian refugees from Soroy Island who were aboard their ship when it was torpedoed by a German bomber aircraft.
His other service was aboard the SS Thomas J. Lyons, SS Smith Victory and the SS Bienville.
The medals he received were from Norway and Russia as well as the Merchant Marine Emblem, Atlantic War Zone Bar, Mediterranean Middle East War Zone Bar and Combat Bar with stars.
Chuck’s family don’t recall his telling them about the war; he didn’t talk about it. The glimpse they did get was the big leather British seaman’s boots which were given to Chuck by a member of the crew who rescued him when the Henry Bacon sank. These boots are now in the collection of the Arctic Convoy Museum. Their story began to finally unfold in the 1990s and into the new millennium when the book THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE SS HENRY BACON was published (2001).
[submitted by volunteer D. Hayesmore based on information received from the family of Chuck Reed]