I recently discovered some information (passenger manifests, I guess you'd call them) indicating that my grandfather, Richard (Dick) Evenhouse, had been an armed guard during WWII. He appears to have been on the SS Alcoa Pointer in Feb 1944 under Lt Jay Tunis Liddle Jr and the SS Brockholst Livingstone in July and Nov 1944 under Lt (jg) Stanley Sorenson and Lt (jg) William Brobst Stollatis respectively.
My grandfather is deceased and we did not have a lot of information about his military career. So far, I haven't been able to turn up much, so if anyone remembers him or can give me more details, I--and undoubtedly my father--would be greatly appreciative!
The information you have found to date about your grandfather is the same information I probably would have found had I searched for him. My guess is that you found that information at Ancestry.com. I do not have access to additional information about him specifically, although I found considerable information on the two ships in which he served. More about that later.
To find additional information about your grandfather and his experiences in World War II, you may be able to obtain his complete military service record, which would detail his assignments and whereabouts during the war, by contacting the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Please see this page from the Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website that I manage: http://armed-guard.com/searchmil.html, in particular section II.A.1. - Records of Individuals - U.S. Military. You will have to contact the National Personnel Records Center, a NARA facility in St. Louis, MO. Provide as much identifying information as you have. Of particular use to you as identifying information is your grandfather's serial number (military ID number) of 611-73-26, which appears in two of the records you and I found. There may be a charge for research time, photocopying and mailing, but the Records Center staff will provide an estimate on the cost before beginning work. Your grandfather's service record should identify the ships or shore-side stations to which he was assigned, training, injuries or illnesses, awards and decorations, etc., which would be useful in providing additional information about his time in the Armed Guard.
Only next of kin can obtain a deceased veteran's complete service record, but you are not next of kin to your grandfather (next of kin=parent, spouse, child, sibling). Therefore it would be best if the request came from your father, or an aunt or uncle, as next of kin, rather than from you. You can do the legwork in the sense of drafting letters or preparing forms but that person should sign the form and thereby potentially obtain more information than you could.
Here is information I found about the two ships in which you found he sailed.
BROCKHOLST LIVINGSTON (note correct spelling) was a Liberty ship, the most common type of cargo ship used in World War II, that was constructed in 50 days between September and November 1942 by the California Shipbuilding Company (“Calship”) in Los Angeles. See http://www.shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/4emergencylarge/wwtwo/kcalifornia.htm and scroll to hull number 83. This record states (incorrectly, since your grandfather was aboard as late as November 1944) that the ship was damaged beyond repair in a typhoon near Okinawa in 1942. I believe the correct date of her loss as September 1945. See http://www.mariners-l.co.uk/LibshipsB.html and scroll to the name of the ship, near the bottom of the page. Several other sources confirm the 1945 date. She was named after Henry Brockholst Livingston (1757-1823), a Revolutionary War army officer and later a Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
In addition, using the excellent website ConvoyWeb (www.convoyweb.org.uk) I have been able to trace the whereabouts of both ships during the time your grandfather was aboard.
ALCOA POINTER, with your grandfather as part of the Armed Guard crew, left New York on a lengthy voyage on or about September 22, 1943. She sailed to Hampton Roads (i.e., the Norfolk area), Virginia, to load cargo, then crossed the Atlantic and Mediterranean in convoy to Port Said, Egypt. She transited the Suez Canal and reached Aden, Yemen, on November 1, 1943, at the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula. She proceeded to Bandar Abbas, Khorramshahr and Abadan, Iran, located on the Persian Gulf, then to Bahrain and back to Bandar Abbas, during November-early December 1943. From Bandar Abbas she proceeded to Buenos Aires, Argentina, arriving there December 31, 1944. This voyage presumably involved sailing south along the east coast of Africa, around Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, then crossing the South Atlantic to Argentina. Interestingly, this voyage was done independently, that is to say all alone, not in convoy and without warship escort. Yikes! She continued to Trinidad in the Caribbean, arriving January 28, 1944 (again sailing independently), then to Guantanamo, Cuba, and finally returning to New York on February 10, 1944, a voyage of five months.
BROCKHOLST LIVINGSTON left Philadelphia on May 26, 1944. (Given that three months had elapsed from the time your grandfather arrived in New York aboard ALCOA POINTER, he may have been on another voyage on one or the other of these two ships in the meantime. BROCKHOLST LIVINGSTON was involved in a voyage from Baltimore to the Mediterranean and return in March-May 1944. ALCOA POINTER also had an additional voyage in that same time period but the Armed Guard crew list from that voyage does not include your grandfather.) After a brief stop in New York, BROCKHOLST LIVINGSTON crossed the Atlantic to Loch Ewe, near the northern tip of Scotland, arriving June 8. For the rest of June she made short voyages to other ports in the British Isles, with names like Methil, Scotland (northeast Scotland), Southend, England (near London), and Middlesbrough, England (northeast coast of England). She departed from Loch Ewe on June 30, returning to New York on July 18, 1944.
On August 4, 1944, BROCKHOLST LIVINGSTON departed New York again, reaching Oban, on the northwest coast of Scotland on August 16. As of September 23 she was in Belfast, Northern Ireland, from which she proceeded to Cherbourg, France (no doubt carrying supplies for the Allied offensive through France) in mid-October. Following a brief stop in Falmouth, England, on October 21-22, she returned to New York on November 5, 1944.
At this point we lose track of your grandfather in Ancestry.com. Since the war in Europe continued for another six months, and the war continued in the Pacific for ten months, it is likely there is more to his record. He may have continued to serve as an Armed Guard on other merchant ships; Ancestry.com's records are sketchy for many ports at which he could have arrived. Or he may have been sent to "the fleet," i.e., assigned to a U.S. Navy warship, where his experience as a gunner would have been valuable. His service record would reveal that information.
If you are interested in pictures of your grandfather's ships, see this page of sources of photographs of World War II-era merchant ships: http://usmm.org/photosource.html. I recommend Mr. Hultgren, second listing on the page, for a photograph of BROCKHOLST LIVINGSTON. Mr. Hultgren's collection is primarily that of Liberty ships, of which BROCKHOLST LIVINGSTON was one. Mr. Hultgren does not have Internet access or e-mail so you will have to write or call. I know enough about his collection to say that he apparently has an image for BROCKHOLST LIVINGSTON. I understand he charges $15 for an 8x10 B&W print. Mr. Hultgren is quite elderly but at least report he is still actively managing his collection; he and I had a telephone conversation a few weeks ago about a request for another photograph. Mr. Hultgren is probably not a source for a photograph of ALCOA POINTER, although there is no harm in asking. The Mariners Museum library in Newport News, Virginia, is a possibility, although the second and third links in that listing are no longer valid. Instead, for assistance in determining whether the library has a photograph of ALCOA POINTER, e-mail library@marinersmuseum.org. The library will charge a fee for a copy, if one is available, but I don’t know how much. A photograph of ALCOA POINTER, in postwar appearance and seemingly of poor quality, is among a great many photos at http://www.photoship.co.uk/JAlbum%20Ships/Old%20Ships%20A/index10.html, specifically http://www.photoship.co.uk/JAlbum%20Ships/Old%20Ships%20A/slides/Alcoa%20Pointer-01.jpg.
I hope this information is useful.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website www.armed-guard.com