Learning about the US Naval Armed Guard

I spent all day Saturday working on my class assignments for the National Institute for Genealogical Studies. One of the assignments for the class in US Military Records was to surf the web and report on interesting and useful websites relating to Military Records. Here is my response:

Since all my grandparents immigrated to the United States at the beginning of the 20th century, my interests in military records center on 20th century records, especially about the US Naval Armed Guard. My father and one of my maternal uncles served in the US Naval Armed Guard, a branch of the military service that few people know about.

The World War II U.S. Naval Armed Guard and World War II U.S. Merchant Marine website at http://www.armed-guard.com/ provided me with a whole lot of information about both the Merchant Marine and the now-defunct Armed Guard. The site includes photos, information, and Armed Guard Manuals, including one for the five inch thirty eight gun on the Liberty Ships.

Wikipedia includes a brief article about the United States Navy Armed Guard at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Navy_Armed_Guard.

The Naval Armed Guard Service in World War II website at http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq104-1.htm includes pages that describe what Armed Guard records are available and where they are located.

The U.S. Naval Armed Guard Casualties During World War II webpage at http://www.usmm.org/armedguard.html lists the names of those members of the Armed Guard who were wounded or killed in World War II. The companion page for U.S. Merchant Marine Casualties during World War II at http://www.usmm.org/casualty.html provides the names of those members of the Merchant Marine who were wounded or killed in World War II.

When I have a bit more time, I’ll write more about the US Naval Armed Guard and the US Merchant Marine.

Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko