For two years, Stafford County resident Preston Davis has continued a quest to find the sailors he served with during World War II.

From his Widewater home, Davis, 81, attempts to contact his former U.S. Navy shipmates, who served with him on the USS Atherton (DE-169). His hope is to gather historical information, as well as rekindle contact with some long-lost friends.

Davis has gathered information on 60 of his shipmates, 39 of whom are living. He's collected photographs of the men as young sailors, as well as current photos of those still living, and updated, family-donated photos of the sailors who have died.

Davis, a former gunners mate, said there are at least 100 more shipmates to find. Upon collecting the photos, they are framed and donated to the Destroyer Escort Historical Museum, created from the USS Slater (DE-766) in Albany, N.Y.

As the Atherton's unofficial historian, Davis pulls together a bit of history and biographical statistics on each located sailor to go with the photos. Finding his former shipmates isn't always easy for Davis, who said the majority of calls he makes turn out to be the wrong people, while he learns that other sailors have passed away.

So, when he finds who he's looking for, alive and well, the moment is an exciting one.

"To run across someone I hadn't seen in 60 years is, well - it's fabulous," said Davis, who's made sure that the Virginia Holocaust Museum, located in Richmond, has also benefited from his research.

In May, a German historian contacted Davis for assistance with his own search. It was then that Davis asked the researcher if he could help find Franz Krones, a prisoner of war who had transferred onto the Atherton at wartime, critically ill with appendicitis.

Krones had been a private in the German Army, but found himself among American sailors on the ship as the war was coming to a conclusion in 1945.

Just as Davis wondered about his shipmates, he wondered what ever happened to Krones.

After the request, it wasn't long before Krones was found and Davis was in contact with Krones' daughter, Irmgard Pospischil, who lives in Otzberg, Germany. Current photos were exchanged, as well as snapshots of Krones' transfer to the ship and his appendicitis operation, during which U.S. sailor Maurice Vitzky, a Jewish surgeon, saved his life.

"All these years Franz was telling people a Jewish doctor saved his life," remarked Davis, who said that Krones' friends and family in Germany now have the photos as proof.

"They were really jubilant to find out that story was true," said Davis.

While Krones was being cared for, the Atherton was on the offensive, seeking out the German submarine U-853, which it is co-credited with destroying May 6, 1945.

Because another u-boat was destroyed the same day, only hours before the German surrender, the Atherton was co-credited with destroying one of the last two u-boats of World War II. The U-853, whose captain disregarded a cease-fire order before its demise, then became the only enemy ship sunk in U.S. waters since the War of 1812.

Davis said he was never able to communicate with Krones, who spoke only German.

"I'd just walk by and look at him every now and then," remarked Davis, who said the shipmates were always curious about him, even after he was transferred to a military hospital.

In June, Davis met several former shipmates he'd found for a reunion in Albany, N.Y. About 25 of the group's friends and family also attended the reunion.

Krones, 85 at the time, was invited but unable to make the trip because he felt it would be too difficult for him at his age. Instead, he sent a translated CD of himself to be played at the reunion.

In the message, Krones was grateful for the care he received, and especially thanked Vitzky and Tom Ciacco, a Navy pharmacy school graduate, for saving his life. Ciacco attended the reunion along with Davis, and former shipmates Joe Hoyer and Alan Wright.

Until recently, Krones didn't know the names of the men who saved him. He was amazed and thrilled that the crew was interested enough to search for him, and his daughter said that her father had always suspected that the compassionate Vitzky had been Jewish.

Krones' appendectomy was Vitzky's first unsupervised operation and his first appendectomy. Vitzky died in 2004 at age 87, before Krones could thank him.

Davis donated the video message from Krones and other historical material and photos to the Slater ship's museum, as well as to the Virginia Holocaust Museum. Among artifacts displayed in the Slater museum are debris from the war and Helmut Fromsdorf's captain's hat, retrieved from the debris among the destroyed U-853.

The Atherton, a Cannon class destroyer escort, is now in service with the Philippines' Navy and known as PF-11 Rajah Humabon. Along with the Slater, the ships are the only destroyer escorts of more than 500 built from 1943 to 1945 in the United States that weren't scrapped. Of those, the Slater is the only one still kicking in U.S. waters.

As Davis continues the search for his former shipmates, rekindled memories, stories and photos assure that history isn't lost.

When asked whether he often tells stories of his military days to his family, Davis replied, "They have to listen to me, yeah. They're a captive audience."

Davis, a former Arlington resident, moved to Stafford in 1984 with his wife, Carol Davis. The couple met when he was a salesman for Guardian Service - a cookware business in which salespeople cooked meals in potential customers' homes and sold them cookware.

"She went with me to wash the dishes. I paid her $5 a night. We hit it off and she's been cooking dinner and washing my dishes since," joked Davis, who today has five children and seven grandchildren.

Davis, who retired from a government printing office in Washington, D.C., recalled a friend he went on liberty with in 1945, in Honolulu, Hawaii, after the war ended. A street vendor took a photo of them in their sailors' uniforms, he remembered. Sixty-one years later, Davis discovered that the sailor, Dan McDonald, had been living less than 50 miles from him all along.

He recently met with McDonald, a Vienna resident, at a North Stafford restaurant for lunch, and to catch up on old times. With their friendship rekindled, the pair didn't part before taking another photo, now included with the original in the historical research Davis continues to gather.