PT Boats Inc.

PT Boats, Inc. was founded in 1946 to preserve the history of PT Boats in World War II. The National Headquarters is located in Memphis, Tennessee. Duane Renville, a World War II PT Boat veteran from Walhalla, serves as the PT Boats, Inc. State Coordinator for North Dakota. Materials in this accession were donated by Duane Renville and Gordon Caldis. Renville donated two copies of a pamphlet entitled "PT Boaters," a list of North Dakota PT Boaters, which includes some biographical information, and a copy of a bibliography on PT Boats, compiled by the National Headquarters of PT Boats, Inc. (Accession # 94-1948) Caldis contributed a photocopy of his biographical sketch from the book Knights of the Sea. (Accession # 94-1949) Photos of several North Dakota PT Boaters, taken at a 1993 "North Dakota PT Boaters Bull Session" have been separated and placed in the Photograph File Cabinets. Individuals photographed include Walter Hewitt of Minto, Harold Zolbahn of Drayton, Harold Wick of Grand Forks, Gordon Caldis of Grand Forks, Duane Renville of Walhalla, Steve Gorman of Fargo and Roscoe Kensworthy of Grand Forks. (OGL #1278-45 - 1278-51) A group photo of all of the above individuals is also stored in the Photograph Collection (OGL #1278-52). The collection also includes two additional photos of Renville - one taken at a PT Boat Reunion in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1993 (OGL #1278-44) and one taken in 1943 depicting Renville in naval uniform. (OGL #1278-53) Also separated was one oversize map depicting the Battle of Surigao Strait on October 25, 1994. Duane Renville received the map at the 1994 Annual PT Boat Reunion in Denver, Colorado. The map was stored in OGL #1278 Oversize Folder #5.