Some background - I requested information about someone’s military service from the National Archives. The information I received back indicates he was on active duty for a little less than two months. This is inconsistent with some other information I have - but I know there was a name change and am wondering if the records are kept using whichever name was correct at the time or if all the records will be merged and kept under the new name.
AFAIK, recordkeeping at a centralized level is managed by Service Number (which is the servicemember’s Social Security Number if they joined after 1974), not by name.
The name should have led to the Service Number, which should have yielded all records associated with the subject.
When were the records from? Lots of records from before 1973 are lost or incomplete.
According to the letter he was on active duty from March 1982 to May 1982. I actually knew about the fire because they mention it right on the website where you can request records.
I thought there would be a single record but I wasn’t 100% sure. It seems that I would have gotten all the records and therefore he was actually on active duty for a little less than two months. Why that would even mentioned in someone’s obituary is a mystery I will never solve.
If someone was active duty for that short of a time then they washed out or were injured during initial training. In general Initial Entry Training (Basic Training, Boot Camp) lasts around two months then there is advanced training to learn your specific job. The exact amount of time to become qualified in a military job depends on the branch and the job.
…what other information do you have?
Not every job has advanced training though, right? One possibility is this person was a reservist.
A Reservist doing what? If you are in the Reserves you need to have a MOS.
ETA: Basic Training is just that, the basic training everyone needs to be in the military. Everyone needs to have advanced training to know their job. There isn’t just a job called “soldier.” In the Army the Infantry combines basic and advanced training but it takes about 15 weeks to get through.
The answer could get more complicated explaining IET, AIT and OSUT but let’s just leave it at you need more than two months to be qualified to do anything in the military. That goes for active, guard or reserves.
Even though his service was so short, maybe it was still important to him, personally. Or to whichever of his family members it was who wrote the obituary. Maybe he (or his family member) genuinely wanted a lifelong military career, and had to change plans when he was discharged due to injury.
Isn’t “rifleman” pretty much “just soldier”, though?
In the Navy, we have, or at least had, unrated personnel. That is, one could be an undesignated seaman (or, more plainly, we quite literally had a job just called “seaman”). Perhaps I missed the part where doreen said their relative had been in the Army?
Just rifleman is a generic term not a military occupation.
Marines have Infantry Rifleman MOS 0311. They go to infantry school after Boot Camp for another few months.
The Army has Army Infantryman MOS 11B. They have a combined Basic Training and AIT that takes about 4 months.
Do they have that in the Reserves? I can see a need for people to do the scut work on a ship but it seems like a complete waste in the Reserves. They do still have undesignated seaman but it appears they are trying to reform the program.
If there were reserve time for this person it was still show up in the records just under a different designation.
I didn’t mention it, but according to the letter he was in the Regular Army. And if he had been in the Reserve, the letter would have given the dates of service in the Reserve, not just the dates for the initial training.
Really just the obituary and the specific way it was written - the way it said he proudly served in the Army before “eventually” working someplace else sounds like someone who retired from the Army and then worked somewhere else. It doesn’t really even sound like someone who was in the Army four years and then worked elsewhere for another thirty-five years but definitely not like someone who didn’t finish Basic Training for whatever reason. Which is why I was wondering if there might be records under another name, since I do know there was a name change at some point.
That’s correct. If there were other guard or reserve time it would also be in the records just not under Title 10. I have about 7 years of Title 10 time but if you look up my records it’s not going to ignore the other 20 years of National Guard.