Posted by Suzanne Roth on November 23, 2010, 2:35 pm
I have very little information, but I am trying to locate either my grandfather or his immediate family. His name was Truman Russell and he was a Chief Petty Officer in the Navy During WWII - possible through the state of Washington. If anybody has any information I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you!
Re: Finding my grandfather
Posted by Ron Carlson on November 23, 2010, 2:57 pm, in reply to "Finding my grandfather"
If you have sufficient identifying information, you MAY be able to obtain the military service record of your grandfather. See this page from the website I manage: http://www.armed-guard.com/searchmil.html, in particular see section A.1. Records of Individuals - U.S. Military. This provides details about requesting a copy of a person's service record.
Since you are not next of kin to your grandfather (that being defined as a spouse, child or sibling), you may not be able to obtain the entire service record. If there are any family members who are next-of-kin, a request from such a person may produce more information. You can do the leg work, of course, but the request should come from the person who is next-of-kin, if available.
If no next-of-kin is available, try on your own anyway.
A search of the Social Security Death Index (http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/) found 11 persons named Truman Russell, most of whom could have served in World War II but none having an obvious connection to the state of Washington.
A search of the online telephone directory at http://www.whitepages.com/ found five listings for persons named Truman Russell, again none of whom have an obvious connection to the state of Washington.
Good luck.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website www.armed-guard.com