AG and MM Board

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reading service record

Posted by Helen on November 1, 2008, 2:21 pm
205.188.116.79

I have my father's original copy of his service record, which I guess was given/mailed to him when he was discharged in 1949. I have figured out many of the abbreviations on there, but there is one large gap in the record. It mentions him being at the AG school in Brooklyn in July 1943, then it has:
cra 8-?-43
tran 7-31-45
rdut AGC N.O. La 8-?-45

No mention of a ship name during those two years, is that unusual? I do know that he was at Anzio, and I have a "Shellback" card dated 5/30/45 from the SS S.M. Babcock.

Another cool piece of history, I have his 1948 Christmas menu from the USS Union (AKA-106).

Dad is still doing fairly well; will be 88 in a few months.

Helen

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Re: reading service record

Posted by Fran Kent on November 1, 2008, 6:35 pm, in reply to "reading service record"
205.188.117.13

Helen: Abbreviations used by the military can be puzzling. In this instance, I'd guess that "cra" might stand for completed refresher (course in something) or considered ready for assignment. It would help to know when he enlisted and what his rating was. Because of the dates, "tran" more than likely means transferred (from AGC Brooklyn) and "rdut" means reported for duty (at AGC New Orleans). I wouldn't bet on any of this, but it seems logical.
-- Fran

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Re: reading service record

Posted by Helen on November 1, 2008, 7:35 pm, in reply to "Re: reading service record"
64.12.117.134

Thanks, the "cra" makes sense.

I was primarily wondering what happened between the completion of the AG course in Aug. 43 and being transferred in July 45. There's no apparent gap in the typing, just nothing reported for those two years.

However, since I posted earlier today, I decided to look into the trial membership at ancestry.com and I found two ship manifests from that gap time -- the Mumford Pearson in 44 and the Nicollet in 45. Both show Dad as a S1/c. I think he'll be excited to see these!

Thanks, Helen

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Re: reading service record

Posted by Rick Pitz on November 2, 2008, 1:33 am, in reply to "Re: reading service record"
71.132.137.109

Helen:

When men were assigned to an Armed Guard Center (AGC), the ships they served on do not appear on the service record, because the ships they were generally assigned to were either merchant ships or troop transports, and not "Fleet Ships". One way to find this information is to request a copy of his personnel records. You can do this on-line at
http://www.archives.gov/veterans/evetrecs/index.html

Click the link for "Request Military Records" on the right side of this page. There is no charge for this, but sometimes it takes many weeks (or months) to get the information. If you are lucky, there will be something in here that points to the ships.

Ron Carlson, the web master for the Armed Guard site also has some other sources that seem to work well. He usually chimes in on these sorts of requests (sorry to volunteer you, Ron).

Good luck!

Rick

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Re: reading service record

Posted by Ron Carlson on November 3, 2008, 10:09 am, in reply to "Re: reading service record"
134.67.6.11

In this case I probably cannot add to that which Helen has already found, since I would use the same approach she did, with success.

Going slightly off topic, I looked back at my posting from April 30, 2008, in which I first mentioned the use of ancestry.com as a source for finding World War II merchant seamen and Armed Guard sailors. I was astonished to discover that my message has been viewed 627 times as of this morning! That is easily three or four times more often than other messages posted at about the same time. Somebody somewhere must have found that message and publicized it in order for it to receive that number of hits. Which is all for the good: the more sources of information available to people, the better. And if Helen and others meet with success in searching for the information they need, that is indeed very gratifying.

Ron Carlson, Webmaster

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Re: reading service record

Posted by Helen on November 2, 2008, 11:27 am, in reply to "Re: reading service record"
205.188.117.13

Thank you! Yes, once I thought about it, I realized that was probably be the reason. I'll also try the link you sent. Ron's advice is very helpful. I was able to find Dad's name on two manifests; I think he will enjoy seeing those, and I will read the names of the other men to him and hopefully that will prompt some happy memories.

Helen

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Re: reading service record

Posted by Rick Pitz on November 2, 2008, 10:17 am, in reply to "Re: reading service record"
71.132.134.154

Helen:

Sorry, I failed to see that you had already checked Ancestry.com. This is one of the sources that Ron has found very useful. Glad it helped you as well.

Ron

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