Alfred "Al" Kolkin and Lucille "Lucy" Gewirtz both grew up in the Brooklyn Jewish community of Bensonhust. Al Kolkin, born August 3, 1918, began his naval training as a U.S. Navy Radio Technician in Sampson, N.Y. (272 miles upstate on Seneca Lake in Seneca County) in 1944. He transferred to Chicago, IL for technician training, then to Del Monte, CA for further training. Kolkin shipped out of Oakland, CA in the summer of 1945 as a Radio Technician first class on the USS Patroclus, an auxiliary repair ship, and later received promotion to Radio Technician, second class. He was discharged from the Navy in January, 1946, and returned home to Brooklyn.
Lucy Gewirtz, born September 20, 1918, graduated from college and became employed at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1942. Her notebook indicates that she received training as a ship fitter. She and Al Kolkin married on November 27, 1943, but the two may have first been acquainted in their community, since their mothers were friends. Lucy remained in Brooklyn while Alfred trained and went at sea, and lived with her parents at 8620 20th Avenue in Bensonhurst. Letters indicate that she planned to visit California in September of 1944 to be with Al during his stateside training but became ill and did not go or did not complete the trip. She apparently became employed in clerical office work as of 1945.
From the guide to the Alfred and Lucille Kolkin papers, Bulk, 1944-1946, 1942-1965, (Brooklyn Historical Society)
