Here’s my take. First of all Leslie Manske was an Armed Guard. Box 23, AG Sch, means Armed Guard School, although I would expect to see a specific school identified.

Box 24: NTS Great Lakes refers to Naval Training Station. Great Lakes, Ill was an important Navy basic training facility.

NTC (AG), Gulfport, Miss, meaning Naval Training Center, was a major U.S. Navy training facility, part of which involved Armed Guard gunnery training.

AGCNOCA probably contains a typo. I think it means Armed Guard Center in New Orleans but should read AGCNOLA rather than “…NOCA.” There were three Armed Guard Centers, with all Armed Guard personnel assigned to one of the three. The other Centers were in Brooklyn and Treasure Island, CA, i. e., San Francisco Bay. Each Center dispatched Armed Guard personnel to ships operating in certain areas; the New Orleans Center assigned personnel to ships operating in the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico and the South Atlantic. Between shipboard assignments, each Center served as home away from home for Armed Guard sailors and officers assigned to that Center.

Finally USNTC, Great Lakes, means he was once again assigned to the Great Lakes, Ill, training center. It might have been for additional training or to serve as an instructor or, depending on the applicable dates, to process his discharge.

As to the ships to which he was assigned I will have to dig a little deeper.

Ron Carlson, Webmaster
Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website