Warbird Information Exchange

i was wondering if anyone out there can help find where my grandfather served. i have a copy of his discharge papers that include.. well most of you whats on there. ive tried to find out through the government but seems they havent found it... possibly because of some mishap back in the 70's in where they lost a bunch of files and records of servicemen. i was named after him and have taken up kinda where he left off, he was a airplane and engine mechanic. i Know he has the AAf air crew member badge, attended aerial engineer school and the few medals that he has.
just want to find out what he might ahve worked on, where what unit etc etc etc. i put it up here because of the high traffic this section gets. im sure someone out there can lead me in the right direction or possibly help my search out in someway... thanks to anyone who can offer any assistance.

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Jon

What do the discharge papers say? By "Aircrew Badge," do you mean the wings, or the four bladed propeller superimposed on a radial engine? I don't want to discourage you, but in the last two weeks, two events reminded me of the difficulties doing any research. One was my friend's uncle's history. He served in the 101st Airborne in WWII. There was a supposedly definitive research volume which had every member of the 101st listed from WWII. My friend's uncle's name didn't appear. We have the paperwork (orders) which show he was assigned to one of the glider infantry units. The second incident involved another friend who spent nearly five years looking for the award of a Bronze Star for his uncle- there are period references to the award, but no original award certificate. What I am saying is that you must be prepared to spend a good deal of time and patience looking for evidence.

First thing to do is dissect the discharge certificate. List the information here or send it to me privately and I'll try to figure it out. There are some codes which are hard to read on the form 2-1. The next thing to do is to look for any other documentation that might be elsewhere. Orders are the most useful- they told the soldier where he was going or where he was coming from. Did he have any awards? On the award certificate, there is usually an awarding officer- looking up his name can sometimes lead somewhere. There will also be a date- signifigant events would result in awards. There is a good chronology of what happened in WWII on the site www.armyairforces.com.

Some other questions to ask:
Were there any old army buddies- their names can be researched as well as your Grandfather.

Are there any souvenirs with place names on them? GI's acquired souvenirs at specific locations. One clue I had when I helped a guy find information was a few Africankorps uniform pieces and a cigarette case from the Vosges Mountains in France. That item narrowed down units searched signifigantly because only certain units served in the Mediterranean and France.

Were any relatives in the service? Sometimes, similar names get filed in the wrong place. You might luck out and find information from the relative that pertains to your Grandfather.

Are there any letters from him to family members? At varying times, V-Mail contained or didn't contain unit information. If you have V-mail, he probably served overseas.

You can probably think of more, but this is really a detective job. Think of everything you know your Grandfather did do, interview familly members to learn more, then do some research to fill in the blanks. It is difficult to do, requires patience, but you will probably be successful if you take the time.

Good luck, and let us know how you make out.

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well what information can i supply from the form? maybe a copy of it might help? i dont have anyting else from my grandmother that i can find. when she passed she didnt have alot fo things left over. i was only a yr and a half when he passed away. from what ive been told by family members is that he was with the flying tigers, he had (my dad has it now) a lepel pin of the Flying tigers emblem... kinda liek the one on the planes. but i know a little bit about that group, i know that even after they we joined the war and they were re-enlisted back into the military they the groups over there called themselves the flying tigers even though they werent the originals. so i dont know at what time line he was over there.

the aaf air crew member badge is under line 31: military qualifications and date.

iive also heard that when he wasnt wrenching on planes he did fly the hump for supplies.
under line 32: battles and campaings - china offensive central burma GO 105 WD 45
line 33: decorations and citations(which i dont have not ahve nor does any member have that i know of or heard) asiatic campaign medal with 2 bronze stars 2 overseas service bars
1 service stripe victory ribbon
distinguished unit badge WD GO(then the paper is cut off.. bad copy)
american theater campaing medal
EAME campaing medal
good conduct medal

i have reason and authority for seperation: demobilization
Service school attended: aerial engineer
i also have that the place of seperation as fort sam houston, organization was 1264th army air forces base unit.
he was listed as a sergeant


anything else i can supply you with just shout.

_________________
http://www.fighterfactory.com/
http://www.militaryaviationmuseum.org/



Jon

Neat, I was at Fort Sam Houston for almost 18 months when I was in the Army. If he was in the Flying Tigers or American Volunteer Group, there will probably be some record of him. There are several books about the group, so check those. However, I can also say that nearly every CBI AAF veteran was asked after WWII if he was with the Flying Tigers. The AVG was very popular in the press, and the press didn't distinguish between the AVG and the 14th Air Force- the patch of the 14th AF was a tiger with wings clutching an AAF star and was descended from the AVG. Here is what I can tell from the rest;

GO 105 45 WD was a War Department General Order. I don't know where there is a list of these, but this was one of the general orders for declaring campaign service in WWII. That means that based on those orders, your Grandfather was authorized to wear the campaign ribbon with two stars. There are two campaigns there- central burma and china offensive. The two stars awarded were displayed for the two campaigns. On a uniform, they are little five point stars placed in the center of the ribbon.

Now here's the bummer and the good news. The specific order for the Distinguished Unit Badge would have given you more information. The Distinguished Unit Citation was awarded to units for certain operations- this means your Grandfather was in those units while they were doing the things which earned them the badge. Finding that specific award might narrow down the number of units to search. But the good thing is that you can look up ALL the units in CBI which received the DUC during the war, and those are the units which your Grandfather may have been part of.

Knowing those two orders' information, you can probably pare down which units you need to research. Your Grandfather was in a unit which was involved in the Central Burma and China Offensive. The unit received a Distinguished Unit Citation. I found this link- it doesn't mean he was part of this unit, but it is what you can find in quick web searches:

http://cbi-theater-1.home.comcast.net/~ ... 21744.html

Here is what the rest of it means

"the aaf air crew member badge is under line 31: military qualifications and date. "

The air crew badge means wings. The wings are regular sized wings with a seal of the united states in a circular shield.

"iive also heard that when he wasnt wrenching on planes he did fly the hump for supplies. "

If he was aircrew, and in the CBI, he flew the Hump. The Ledo Road wasn't finished until 1945, so all supplies which went to China went over the Hump until then.

"under line 32: battles and campaings - china offensive central burma GO \2 overseas service bars
1 service stripe victory ribbon "

1 service stripe means he was in the service for at least three years. 2 overseas service bars means he was overseas for at least 12 months. These were displayed on the uniform on the left sleeve above the cuff- overseas bars are little gold bars sewn together. The service stripe is a little bigger, but it is at a 45 degree angle. If you look up ike jackets on ebay, you can see how they were displayed.

"distinguished unit badge WD GO(then the paper is cut off.. bad copy)
american theater campaing medal
EAME campaing medal
good conduct medal"

The Distinguished unit badge is described in the link I posted. The Europe, African, Middle Eastern medal and good conduct medal can be found displayed on ebay. The EAME was awarded to anybody who went through the theatre. Most units which were in CBI went through this area to get to CBI- that's why they got the medal. The American Theatre Campaign medal was awarded to everybody who served stateside. A Good Conduct Medal was not a common award- your Grandfather was a decent soldier.

"i have reason and authority for seperation: demobilization
Service school attended: aerial engineer
i also have that the place of seperation as fort sam houston, organization was 1264th army air forces base unit.
he was listed as a sergeant"

Sergeant suggests he was probably aircrew during most of his time. I would guess that he was probably an engineer for a C-46 or C-47. Here is a description of an Aerial Engineer in CBI:

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/ww2latinos/te ... 2C+Tomas+Z.

Hope this helps. If you have more, send more.

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I would make one other guess- your grandfather was probably in a troop carrier squadron. I forgot to mention it, but you should be looking in CBI Troop Carrier Squadron's which were in the Burma and Central China Campaigns and received a Distinguished Unit Citation.

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