Son of Mr. and Mrs. James Albert Doster of Athens, GA
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USNR
Service No: 6376259
Entered the Service from GA

Seaman 2nd Class ROY LEE DOSTER, a U.S. Navy Armed Guard assigned to the American merchant ship Louise Lykes, was on board as the ship left New York on January 2, 1943. Loaded with a cargo of war supplies and ammunition, the unescorted ship headed for Belfast, Ireland. Although unescorted, the ship was armed with one 4-inch, two 3-inch and eight 20mm guns and a crew of Navy Armed Guards to man them.

On Jan 9th, about 500 nautical miles south-southeast of Iceland, German submarine U-384 was spotted just below the surface of the water. Navy gunners immediately opened fire, their shots straddling the sub but not directly hitting it. Unfortunately, U-384 had already fired off four torpedoes from a distance of 2000 yards, and when two hit there was an explosion so great that the sub had to make a crash dive to avoid being hit by fiery debris. When it surfaced about five minutes later, the only thing floating on the water was debris, the ship had virtually disappeared.

There were 51 Merchant Mariners, 34 US Navy Armed Guards, and possibly 10-20 members of the US Army Signal Corps on board. None survived.

Roy Lee Doster's name is on the Tablets of the Missing, East Coast (WWII) Memorial, Battery Park, New York, NY

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About the US NAVY ARMED GUARD
"The U.S. Navy Armed Guard was a service branch of the United States Navy that was responsible for defending U.S. and Allied merchant ships from attack by enemy aircraft, submarines and surface ships during World War II.
The men of the Armed Guard served as gunners, signal men and radio operators on cargo ships, tankers, troop ships and other merchant vessels..."
from:http://www.armed-guard.com/about-ag.html
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