Nadine,

From first glance, he's not a Lieutenant Commander (O4) which leaves Lieutenant (O3) and Ensign (O1) left. He's definitely not a Lieutenant Junior Grade (O2) as the stripe on his shoulder board would be thinner. There's not enough of either one of his shoulders (board) showing to say for certain.

The war is still going on from your date. In later years, ports such as Cannes were used by carriers and the smaller combat ships were relegated to smaller ports like Nice. Support ships
would seek industrial hubs. Because of the war, that thought goes out the window!

I want to say he's an aviation type officer but once again, the picture isn't sized to see more of
his uniform and the picture isn't very good. I'm thinking it's green in color and they would be wearing their winter uniforms, therefore he'd be a pilot or navigator.

Here's a couple of sites of interest, especially the second. It's your best chance of locating him, IMHO.

http://www.history.navy.mil/library/guides/navy_personnel.ht...

http://www.worldvitalrecords.com/contentsearch.aspx?cat=wvr_...

I've attached a photo taken from a US Navy Cruise Book from Ancestry.com's Military Card files of databases. I couldn't duplicate the search over again using their "NEW" search engine shame of it all. If my memory serves me I found it under the carrier Bennington.

Best of luck,

Frank

Here's another site showing libraries:

http://www.worldcat.org/title/register-of-officer-personnel-...