Another article mentions Mr. Thornton served on the USS Herald. The wiki article for this ship mentions its operations almost identical and less than a week ahead of the ship my father served on at the same time.
There's a good chance that both of the ships were in Sasebo and Shanghai at the same time and my dad could have possibly rubbed elbows with him on liberty.
Here's a flotilla of minesweepers in Shanghai during the time frame they both were there.
