Posted by Stephanie Provorse on August 8, 2011, 10:44 am
Hello, my father served in the Armed Guard in WWII from 1943 until Oct of 1945. He served aboard the Anniston City and the Atlanta City and possibly another ship. His name was Delbert Steven Provorse. Blue eyes, not much hair and about 5'11". He was a gunners mate 3rd class at time of discharge. I'd like to find someone who served with him. He attended Brooklyn Armed Guard training center. Would love to talk to someone who knew him or sailed in the above ships. Stephanie freebirdnow49@yahoo.com
I have taken the liberty of placing your message under a heading of its own. Your original message responded to one from Mr. James McCabe, but your message was irrelevant to Mr. McCabe's message.
Anyway...
I have researched your father's Armed Guard service and have found records of his presence on three voyages, two aboard ANNISTON CITY and one aboard ATLANTA CITY. I found this information on Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com), a subscription website that is more commonly used for genealogical research. However, Ancestry.com has databases that list the names of crewmen aboard ships that arrived in certain U.S. ports of entry upon their return from a foreign voyage. There are extensive records available for the port of New York in particular.
Below I list the names of your father's Armed Guard ship mates for each of the three voyages. Most of these men are likely deceased by now, and I do not have contact information for any who are still living, with two possible exceptions. I will provide contact information for these two exceptions in a private e-mail to you.
In any case, here is a list of Armed Guard crewmen, other than your father, aboard ANNISTON CITY on arrivals of that ship in New York on July 2, 1944 (from Liverpool, England), and on October 12, 1944 (from Barry, England). The crew list for the two voyages is nearly identical, except for two men who were on the July 2 arrival but not in October, and two who were on the October 12 arrival but not for the July arrival. I have noted the exceptions below.
July 2, 1944 / October 12, 1944 ANNISTON CITY Carlton Akins Frank Ambrogio (July) Pasquale Balzarano Paul Bennett Charles Bradley Mike Buytas Edward Dolan Wilfred Doucette James Dykes George Gammons Ferman Gelsomini (July Peter Gergely George Gruber Jerome Kinnear Frank Leach Albert Lengemann Nicholas Liotti Edward Maher Walter McPherson Virgil Means Louis Morowitz (Oct) Hilbert Nilsson (Oct) Thomas Perry LT(j.g.), AG commanding officer Lawrence Rizzutti Harry Sangrey Victor Ulsberger Thomas Wallace James Whitley
Following are your father's Armed Guard shipmates aboard ATLANTA CITY upon that ship's arrival in New York on January 16, 1945, from Swansea, England:
January 16, 1945 / ATLANTA CITY Raymond L Arrington Clifford P Eckenroad James S Eddy William A Elliott Robyl Fassnacht LT(j.g.), Armed Guard commanding officer George Ingram Fitchett Junior R Hadley Dominic A Lonta William R Foy Claude L Hodges Ernest E Horne Alvey T Housand Eugene G Legagneux Henry S Letarte Robert Lindley Jr. Nicholas J Liotti Raymond T Lonergan Jr. Paul A Roy John Sabanick Edwin J Sebold Malcolm Stewart Frank B Tuchnowski
Interestingly, ANNISTON CITY and ATLANTA CITY were sister ships, having been completed just one month apart in 1921, built by Chickasaw Shipbuilding & Car Co., Chickasaw, Alabama. Both ships survived the war, were sold and renamed several times thereafter, and were scrapped in 1958 and 1959, respectively. Photographs of the two ships, and other information about their careers, are at http://www.isthmianlines.com/ships.htm.
You may be able to obtain a copy of your father's military service record, which could contain additional information of interest to you. See this page on the Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website that I manage: http://www.armed-guard.com/searchmil.html. In particular, see section A.1. Records of Individuals - U.S. Military, for details about how to request a copy. You will have to contact the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri, providing as much identifying information as you have. Good luck.
As stated, I will provide additional information in a private e-mail.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website www.armed-guard.com
Dear Ron, Several months ago you provided me with two men who sailed with my father. I contacted both and was rewarded with much info and actually pictures. One had alzheimers and I worked through his wife. The other was alert and we struck up a great friendship. He passed at 90 and I still email his family. Thank you so much for your help with that. Since then I applied and received a medal and madalion awarded to the vets of WWI here in the state of Missouri, it was great. I have also applied to have those awards he received replaced. I'm still waiting for a response on that. Thank you for your hard work keeping up this web site I means so much to many....Sincerely,,,Stephanie Regan
An update to my continued search for informationn my fathers Naval Service during WWII. I contacted the Armed Guard Naval Archives in Pennsylvania. I paid for and received over 100 pages from the ship's log of the two vessels my father Delbert Steven Provorse served on during that war. It was well worth the cost and the investment in time. I have been able, from these pages, to trace all his voyages, ports of call and enemy encounters. It has been a great experience. I reccomend it to anyone searchng for info.
Thank you for this message, and how fortunate that you were able to obtain this kind of information about your father and the ships in which he served.
For the interest of others who may read your message, can you confirm what office you contacted, including address, phone number and contact person(s), if available.
My guess is that you contacted not the "Armed Guard Naval Archives" but rather the regional facility in Philadelphia of the U.S. National Archives. The logs of ships that arrived at U.S. ports would eventually have made their way to the National Archives regional facility closest to the port at which the ship arrived. Your description of what you were able to obtain seems to correlate with what I know about locating ships' logs.
My further guess, in case Stephanie does not answer this message, is that she contacted the National Archives at Philadelphia, Chestnut Street, between 9th and 10th Streets, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107; Telephone: 215-606-0100; Fax: 215-606-0116; e-mail: Philadelphia.archives@nara.gov; website: http://www.archives.gov/philadelphia/; Facebook: www.facebook.com/NARAatPhiladelphia
The National Archives has other regional facilities at which other ships' logs may be stored. For names and addresses of these other facilities, see http://www.archives.gov/locations/.
Good luck, all who search. May you be as successful as Stephanie.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website www.armed-guard.com