Louis Prevost's Official Military Personnel File
Louis Marius Prevost, father of Pope Leo XIV (born Robert Francis Prevost), enlisted in the United States Navy in 1942. He served through World War II and retired from the Naval Reserve in 1956. The below page from his Officer Official Military Personnel File (OMPF), written by Pastor Murphy of the St. Thomas Apostle Church, describes Louis Prevost as “...a good Catholic and a young man of good character and steady habits.”
A page from Louis Marius Prevost's Official Military Personnel File. National Archives Identifier: 518262759.
You can view and download his Enlisted and Officer records from the National Archives Catalog.
This record is located in Record Group 24: Records of the Bureau of Naval Personnel. This record group is only partially available online. We encourage researchers to visit us onsite to explore these records and learn more about the archival collections held in the National Archives at St. Louis.