Posted by eber jaques on December 20, 2015, 12:42 pm
My dad's name was Eber Jaques. He served in the Armed Guard and was in the Casablanca invasion, Later as a Commander he was stationed at Treasure Island in San Francisco. Does anyone know of him or remember serving with him. Any information would be much appreciated. Thanks
I found that I had never attempted a response to your message posted on December 20, 2015. I apologize for overlooking your inquiry.
I have found only limited military service information about an Eber E. Jaques (1906-1960). What I found were brief records showing him as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy as of July 1942 through at least July 1944, and as a commander as of April 1951 through at least July 1955. I found no record of him at lower ranks or as a lieutenant commander, nor does any of the information I found indicate his specific assignment to a ship or base. So I cannot confirm that he was in the Armed Guard but I will gladly take your word for that.
The invasion of North Africa (Operation Torch) took place in November 1942, during which time your father was a lieutenant. At that rank he could very well have been the commanding officer of an Armed Guard unit aboard a merchant ship, although most commanding officers had the rank of ensign or lieutenant (j.g.). I have never found instances of officers at the rank of lieutenant commander and above in command of an Armed Guard unit aboard a ship but a shoreside assignment to Treasure Island, one of three Armed Guard Centers during the war, certainly makes sense.
Given the sketchy information I found, you may wish to try to obtain your father’s complete military service record, which should provide much additional detail of interest to you. For directions on obtaining his service record, see this page on the Armed Guard website that I maintain: http://armed-guard.com/searchmil.html. In particular, see section II.A.1, Records of Individuals – U.S. Military. You will need to contact the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri, providing as much identifying information as you have. The Records Center will charge a fee for researching, copying and mailing information but the Records Center staff will advise you of any fee prior to beginning work on your request.
I hope this information is useful.
Good luck and best wishes.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website www.armed-guard.com