Questions re: Researching My Grandfather's WW2 Service Record

1,557 Views | 6 Replies | Last: 6 yr ago by 93Spur
Txmoe
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AG
I've been thinking about researching my grandfather's WW2 service record for a while. All I know is he was a guard for a flame thrower in the Pacific. Was hoping folks on here could help me get started because I'm a complete novice about anything military-related.

1) What information would I need to get started?
2) What are the odds that any documents are still around?
3) Will I be able to do anything other than just trace his unit's movements?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.
Hey Nav
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National Archives at St Louis

You might start here. Good luck with your search.
The Kraken
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Good luck. 80% of the Army records from that era were destroyed in the 1973 fire. If he was a Marine, which I imagine he was, the records should be intact.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Personnel_Records_Center_fire
Ag_EQ12
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You might start with unit histories for some background info.
JABQ04
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Out of curiosity, what unit did your grandfather serve in?
Txmoe
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Much thanks to all of you who offered advice. Luckily my aunt had some of my grandfather's service documents, including his honorable discharge papers. This will give me a good start. I've requested his service record from the National Archives so we'll see what I get back.

For anyone else interested doing a similar search, along with the National Archives site mentioned above, I also found the National WW2 Museum site to be incredibly helpful.
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/research-veteran

Will keep you posted on how the search goes. Thanks again to everyone!
Txmoe
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JABQ04 said:

Out of curiosity, what unit did your grandfather serve in?
According to his Honorable Discharge papers, he finished his service in Company C, 108th Infantry, 40th Division.
93Spur
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Start here - https://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records

While, as noted, a substantial amount of WWII records were lost in the fire, I received some records 1935-1965. Not everything, but still something.

Worth trying.
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