Celebrate Navy Day with a discussion of one of the least-known units of World War II, the Navy Armed Guard. Serving in the U-boat-infested waters of the Atlantic, these sailors served in small detachments aboard merchant ships manning the deck guns. This virtual program will be hosted from the Sunset Park waterfront, where many sailors departed from the docks of the Brooklyn Army Terminal and Bush Terminal, and where the largest Armed Guard Center in the country was located, the Second Battalion Naval Militia Armory that once stood on 1st Avenue and 52nd Street. We will discuss the creation and evolution of the service during World War II, listen to oral histories of Armed Guard sailors, and visit one of the few memorials to the sacrifices of these brave men.
Photo Credit: Official US Navy photograph, taken by Clarence F. Korker
- ArmedGuard.com
- The Pointer archive
- American Merchant Marine at War
- Clarence “Korky” Korker interview (USA Warrior Stories)
- Justin F. Gleichauf (1990) Unsung Sailors: The Naval Armed Guard in World War II
- “Historical Narrative of U.S. Naval Armed Guard Center Third Naval District” (Hyperwar)
- “Armed Guard Service in World War II” (NHHC)
