I think we got it, found this info: the 74th AAA Gun Bn was the 1st Bn of the 74th Coast Artillery (AA) Regiment. Here is the lineage:
74th Coast Artillery (AA) Regiment
Constituted 7-29-21 in OR as the 503rd Arty (AA), CAC, and organized March 1922 at Tyrone, PA. Redesignated 6-3-24 as 503rd CA (AA) Regt. Withdrawn from OR and allotted to RA inactive 10-1-33. Redesignated 74th CA (AA) Regt 7-1-40 and activated at Ft. Monroe, VA 1-3-41. Transferred to Cp. Pendleton, VA, 7-19-41 until deployed to AA positions in Norfolk-Portsmouth, VA, area 12-14-41 to 11-19-42; moved to A.P. Hill M.R., VA. Transferred to Ft. Meade, MD, 4-28-43, then to Cp. Myles Standish, MA, until departure from NYC. Landed North Africa 5-11-43 and deployed to Sardinia 10-27-43. Inactivated 5-1-44 and HHB redesignated 74th AAA Gp; 1st Bn, 74th AAA (Gun) Bn; 2nd Bn, 896th AAA (AW) Bn. The 3rd Bn was disbanded.
on the travel dates you gave, it appears that he was on convoy UGF-8. The convoy is listed as leaving Hampton Roads, VA. on 29 April 1943,but some of the ships loaded & sailed from New York then joined the convoy.
UGF-8 arrived Oran, North Africa 11 May 1943. I have the list of ships in the convoy & i`ll try to find out which one carried the 74th. Usualy they will just say "carried 5,500 troops" without giving the units aboard.
SonoaMP,
Does it reference any time spent in NJ. I can't remember if my mom said he came down from Camp Drum in NY and that's when he met her. I know according to the both of them he was stationed at a Curtis Wright aircraft plant in East Paterson supposedly with an AA battery. I guess protection for the plant due to it's proximity to the coast line.
Regards,
Clay