Britain's hurried expansion of defensively equipped merchant ships and several sources of naval gunners provided a model for the American response. By war's end, the US Navy Armed Guard had roughly 145,000 personnel supporting about 6,200 ships. Its detachments were responsible mainly for gunnery, but could also supply radio operators, medical specialists, and later radar personnel when a merchant crew lacked them. That breadth made the Armed Guard an interface between civilian ship operation and naval combat systems. Communications and specialist staffing could remain uneven on merchant vessels even later in the twentieth century. During the Falklands War, some merchant ships still needed helicopters to lower written instructions because their radios could not communicate effectively with naval networks.
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The US Navy Armed Guard put military specialists aboard merchant ships
The Armed Guard supplied gunners and, where needed, radio, medical, and later radar specialists to help merchant vessels survive in combat zones.