In another message string on the message board someone noted that his father had been transferred or assigned to the "Armed Guard pool" in a foreign port. Searching the Armed Guard website I can find other Armed Guards who, in their biographies, noted that they had been assigned temporarily to the Armed Guard pool at various locations, one being in Norfolk.
Can any of you AG vets clarify the notion of Armed Guard pools? I know of the three Armed Guard Centers (Brooklyn, New Orleans, Treasure Island) of course, but how did the pools work?
[I'm sure we're not talking about swimming pools here, desirable as they may have been in some climates, heh.]
Ron Carlson, Webmaster
Re: Navy Armed Guard pool
Posted by Francis B. Kent on March 25, 2011, 10:41 pm, in reply to "Navy Armed Guard pool"
The only time I left a ship in a port not in the continental U.S. was in Panama, to be hospitalized. Upon discharge, I was sent to a receiving station where I met other AG sailors but I never heard anyone refer to an AG "pool." All of us, as far as I know, were reassigned within the AG. Perhaps our corner of the receiving station was indeed designated an AG "pool." If so, I wasn't aware of it, and I'm sure the appropriate entry in my service record refers to the U.S.Naval Receiving Station, Balboa, C.Z.
Re: Navy Armed Guard pool
Posted by Ron Carlson on March 26, 2011, 10:48 pm, in reply to "Re: Navy Armed Guard pool" Message modified by board administrator March 26, 2011, 11:49 pm
Well, duh, I guess if I had read the Armed Guard website I would have answered my own question. Great source, that website.
In one of the documents Rick Pitz so generously transcribed is this:
"While Armed Guards were generally placed aboard ships in continental United States ports, the practice of establishing pools of Armed Guards in various ports of the world began to develop very early in the war. All Armed Guards in pools remained attached to the Armed Guard Center which had sent them out. The pools were made up mostly of personnel who were survivors or who had been taken off ships returning to the United States, but a few officers and men were sent out from the Centers in special cases. Each pool had an officer-in-charge who came under the command of the Area Commander. Assignments to merchant ships were handled by the Area Commander or his service force, which normally handled personnel for the area. The pools grew to meet the needs of the service. They varied widely in size and were constantly increasing and decreasing as those needs changed.
"The first pool established was that at Londonderry. During the course of the war other pools were established at Antwerp, Oran, Port Said, Melbourne, Fremantle, Sydney, Brisbane, Milne Bay (later moved to Samar), Hollandia (later moved to Manila), Finschaven (later moved to Manus), Subic Bay, Ulithi, Saipan, Pearl Harbor, and Balboa. By all odds the two most important pools were those at Port Said and Balboa. Ships with a maintenance crew or with an Area 2 crew of 9 men could be readily brought up to Area 1-A requirements when they passed through the Panama and Suez canals. Repair parties were attached to the pools at Milne Bay and Hollandia. In addition to foreign pools, the Center at Treasure Island kept small pools at San Pedro and Seattle and Brooklyn kept a small pool at Norfolk.
"The pools performed three main functions. They allowed rotation of crews on shuttle runs. They made it easy to add the Area 1-A equipment to ships which had been operating with maintenance or reduced crews. They furnished replacements for crew members removed for hospitalization and disciplinary action..."