Radioman Paul E. Hope USCG W1KOO - Home state Vermont - Mr. Hope’s heritage was Canadian andhis people settled in Northern Vermont. Not many will ever know that Paul Hope existed but there will bea few references in the annals of time if you now where to look. Paul was a Coast Guard Radioman during
WWII - he was assigned transport duty. The vessel, leased, US Army Transport Dorchester radio sign
WOBO. Their mission, transporting troops and material to Greenland in convoy.
The night of 3 Feb 1943 only 150 miles from making portand safety, the SS Dorchester loaded with troops bound forEurope was stalked by a German U-boat - The thunderstruck the Dorchester and foundered in 25 minutes. On theway down (4) military chaplains gave their life preservers
to the men who did not have them. There were many
rescues that night by the escort Cutters Comanche andEscanaba but the Chaplain’s were not among the living nor
our RM - Paul E. Hope. Of 902 men only 227 survived.
Paul Hope our subject was aboard the ill fated Dorchesterthat night, under strict orders for radio silence. The power
went off immediately due to the torpedoed engine room.
The angle of list caused only a short time to prepare for ditching. One of the convoy escorts was running
Sonar and heard the explosion & knew a convoy ship was hit and alerted his skipper. The Cutter Comanche
found 13 life rafts and rescued many men in the water.
Hope is remembered in Vermont as the Burlington Radio Club honors his old call W1KOO & in NYC atBattery Point in Manhattan at the East Coast Memorial which lists 4,601 servicemen who lost their lives inthe Atlantic Ocean during World War II. The befitting memorial features eight 19 foot high granite walls,
or pylons inscribed with the names, rank and home state of the four thousand six hundred plus one
casualties. The monument was restored in 1997 by a coalition of arts and conservation groups.
Another memorial at Battery park, The Wireless Operators Memorial, dedicated in 1915 to the days whenradiomen were indispensable members, who served under often perilous conditions. Indeed the first nameinscribed on the memorial is that of Jack Phillips, the radio operator on the ill fated Titanic. The memorial
is modest - a simple square column inscribed with names. Drawing the attention of the novelist WillaCather, who wrote “This Monument
is one of the most attractive andmost friendly commorative works inNew York. These men died in stormand terror, but their names arebrought together here and abide in apleasant place with cheerfulcompanionship.
Pictured the USAT Dorchester(converted troop carrier) after
torpedo impact, the small red
emergency lights are seen on the life
jackets of the men aboard and in thewater. Painted by Retired C.G.
Radioman Dick Levesque.. He has awonderful page on the Internet. The Dorchester radio call WOBO is reissued to a Cincinnati FM Radiooutlet, ironically one of the station engineers was a member of the convoy helping rescue war timesurvivors of the SS Dorchester that dreaded night in 1943. Continued

The radio engineer in Cincinnati was none other than Radioman Bruno Yoka 1920-2004 aboard the Cutter
Comanche on convoy duty. Yoka was also a ham issued W8SKK. A sad note, the Cutter Escanaba
suffered the same fate as the Dorchester afterwards with only two survivors.
I later learned Paul Hope joined the Coast Guard October 14th 1942 and approx 4 months later was a war
casualty aboard the Dorchester. He left behind his wife Katherine, mother and dad and a brother inBurlington VT. His dad was in the printing and sign business. Paul’s full name was Paul Emile Hope - hisQSL card is on file at the club as it was obtained and some records were kept in safe keeping.
Mr. Hope wrote a letter to the Burlington Club the night before they left port on that fatal trip in 1943andit was kept and housed in the local rectory for many years, but due to a fire, the letter was lost. In that letter
Paul described the ship and how he liked the Coast Guard and his radioman position.
We were told Paul’s QSL W1KOO
is a picture type and had a lake on
the face. It was obtained from aW7 station in the northwest. I’ve
tried several times to procure acopy but no avail.

W8SU 2008