Does anyone know of a way to search for a name on a roll of crew on ships that served in the Pacific in World War II. All I know about my grandfather’s service is that he was a signalman and he had a Purple Heart medal and that’s pretty much it. I’m not too sure of date of service or anything else, except that it was in the Pacific.
If anyone in my family knows, they’re being tight-lipped. I’ve asked everyone and no one seems to have the info.
Have you tried contacting the Department of the Navy?
Or try this site since he has a Purple Heart.
Check out the US Navy Muster Rolls on fold3.com. Do a search on his name and see if it comes up with a likely match. You’ll have to join to see the service details, but they have a one week free trial that should do the trick.
I may have been mislead about the Purple Heart. I did indeed find his name, but not the right guy. Service off by a decade.
Ooh, that maybe the ticket. I found his name … I will most likely take the free trial to get the roll. Cool. Thanks for the tip.
Any hints on the class of, or type of, ship he served on?
Also, the US Census just released the immediate postwar census data.
That might help.
Don’t be discouraged. That database requires the submission of PH documentation for inclusion. It isn’t connected to a DOD database. If nobody has enrolled your grandfather, then he wouldn’t be in there. If you are successful in getting your grandfather’s service records, you can submit them to that site and he’ll be added to their roster. I just checked a few buddies who’ve received PHs and none of their names are listed.
Interesting.
I tried to do the free trial, but it wanted my credit card number. No thanks.
My dad served in the Navy, in a kind of mechanics/repair ship. I always wanted to find out more about it, but he died in 1980 and I never got a chance to ask him.
Yeah, if you stick with it past the free trial they’ll start charging you the monthly rate. If you cancel before the week’s up it doesn’t cost anything.
But then the Navy will have my credit card number. How do I know they won’t try to buy a battleship with it?
That site is not the Navy. Its a third party company , that has copied the info (and OCR’s the written pages into digital text too ?) from the National Archives, and then sells access to their copy.
You can go to the National Archives … and there must be other ways.
One easy way, How about contacting veteran affairs. To find out if they have any information on your veteran, call them at 800-827-1000. If the Department of Veteran Affairs does not have any information you can try contacting the Veteran Affairs Insurance Center at 800-669-8477.
The reason they would have the info, is that he registered with them, right ?
My dad was in the navy then (UDT 11 on USS Kline) so I had a look at that fold3 site. It looks like there are duplicate listings because I found him listed as LastName, FirstName MiddleName and LastName, FirstName MiddleInitial. I have copies of all his records so won’t bother signing up to check it.
The DD214 form (Discharge & Separation form) is the official record for any serviceman that tells all the information that you want. If you can find that form in his papers, that’s what you need. It was probably used if he got a VA house loan, used GI Bill for college, or got medical treatment via the VA system, and so they might have a copy of it. Local Veterans Service Officer might help. Or ask at nearby VFW/American Legion posts, if he participated in those.
Otherwise, you (or his next-of-kin or heirs) can request a copy from the National Archives system (DD Form 214, Discharge Papers and Separation Documents | National Archives)National Archives System. But that can take a few weeks to get an answer – they get thousands of requests every day. (There are also for-profit companies that claim they can get it faster, for a price. I think many/most are scams.)
Yep, I’m not on there either. Strangely enough, my great uncle who served in WWII is on there, but under the wrong first name. He’s listed as Harry rather than Henry. All the other info is correct.