Fran Kent is entirely correct: the Armed Guard was fully a part of the U.S. Navy and its men have/had the same benefits as any other servicemen.
What you may be thinking of, or what your source of information may have been thinking of, was the merchant marine, the civilian sailors who operated merchant ships on which Armed Guard units were placed. After the war the U.S. government refused to recognize merchant mariners as veterans, even though they faced the same situations, including combat, that the Armed Guard experienced. Merchant marine veterans received no benefits whatsoever until 1988 when the Department of Defense was forced, all but kicking and screaming and under court order, to recognize these men as veterans -- by which time many or most of them had died or had certainly passed the age at which many potential benefits would have been most useful. Even so the benefits for merchant marine veterans are very limited, generally limited to burial benefits.
The post-war treatment of merchant marine veterans is a blot on our nation's history.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster
Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website
www.armed-guard.com
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