[Gunnerboy]

My great grandpa passed last year and when looking thru some things found out he was a korean war vet which is odd because he always said he never was in the military and i cant seem to find anything about him or what regiment or platoon he was in anywhere, also i found out from my grandpa that he seems to remember hearing that he might have used a m1 garand experimental rifle one of the predecesors to the m14, so i was wondering if there is any way of confirming this thru military records or anywhere i could find out what unit he was in?

[snubbies]

If you have his service number it is as easy as writing:

National Personnel Records Center
Military Personnel Records
9700 Page Ave
St. Louis, MO 63132-5100

If you don't have his service number you may be able to use SSN, Date of Birth, City of Birth.

I got mine with no trouble just a little patience. When you write identify yourself and your relationship to the serviceman.

Good Luck

[Gunnerboy]

alright ill give it a try thank you

[Shadow 7D]

not serial number - edit: Thanks
SERVICE NUMBER
it would be on his dog tags if you can find them, or as part of is personal information on his military records.

[dannyr3_8]

If you have his service number it is as easy as writing:

National Personnel Records Center
Military Personnel Records
9700 Page Ave
St. Louis, MO 63132-5100

If you don't have his service number you may be able to use SSN, Date of Birth, City of Birth.

I got mine with no trouble just a little patience. When you write identify yourself and your relationship to the serviceman.

Good Luck
thanks for that address i to hav e questions about my grandfathers service only in wwii i know he was on a 4.5 in gun fa but i have yet to find out what that is i also would like to know where ans why he was awarded five bronze stars

[rcmodel]

he was on a 4.5 in gun fa but i have yet to find out what that isSay What??

Oh, never mind, I decoded it!
A 4.5" inch gun?

The British Navy used a 4.5" gun on ships.

The U.S. Military used the M1 4.5" field howitzer in WWII.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4.5_inch_Gun_M1


As for the field artillery being issued M-14 prototypes in Korea?
That seems very very unlikely to me.

Those guys were fighting for their lives in miserable winter conditions most of the time.
Not a good place to be testing non-standard weapons very early in the development stage!!

rc

[Shadow 7D]

No, but arty was issued the second line weapon, the M1/M2/M3 carbine

[Bojangles7]

Good luck on your research. It's a shame more is not known about "the forgotten war".

[snubbies]

It is not nor ever will be forgotton to those of us who were there. The sad part is those that never came back from a war that gained nothing witness todays North Korean status.

[rcmodel]

Or witness Viet Nam.

Or any other of our wars & police actions since WWII.

Have we really gained anything out of any of them??

rc

[Gunnerboy]

What makes me wonder the most is did he actually use one of the experimental m1 garand rifles or not ? thats the main reason of my search, that and i would like to know what battles he was in and what unit.

[dannyr3_8]

rcmodel no sir my grandfather was in field artillery which is why i'm confused his discharge papers say he was a foward observer for a 4.5 in gun i've never heard of one and that is why i need more info

[rcmodel]

Well you might need to know that an FO, or Forward Observer is attached to an infantry line company right at the front.
He spots the shots, makes corrections, and calls in fire on the target for the cannon-cockers "in the rear with the gear".

SO, the unit he was officially in was an artillery outfit, hopefully well behind the lines and the fiercest fighting.
But he would have been attached to, and fought in, an infantry unit on the front lines.

That could explain a lot about how he earned all those medals.

But it makes it even less likely he carried an experimental rifle.
FO's are already over-burdened with binoculars, maps, radios, or telephones.
They would likely be issued a .45 pistol or .30 M1 Carbine.
(Unless he picked up a Garand off the battle-field due to personal preferance.)

Not a prototype M-14 he couldn't get re-supplied with 20-round magazines, or loose 30-06 ammo not already in machine-gun belts or 8-round M1 Garand clips.

rc

[Shadow 7D]

FO's go hide in the bushes and tell the guys in the rear how badly they are missing, unless those aforementioned guys in the rear manage to drop a round on the FO (sadly not unheard of)

So yeah, a FO would have a first line weapon.

[InkEd]

I don't know for sure BUT..... I think you may be setting yourself up for a little disappointment. His military records probably won't be a history book (or even very detailed.)

They will have an entrance and exit date of service, completion of training and some of his deployment dates. Pretty much like you would track a package nowadays. Service number xxxxxxxxxx started here on this date. Assigned to this unit. Sent to here on dd/mm/yy. Sent here this date. Ended service on dd/mm/yy. The end.

Anything is better than nothing though. Best of luck.

[JohnBiltz]

Check his papers for his DD 214. If he was a vet he has it around somewhere. Its a very useful legal document for a lot of things. The DD 214 will have a brief summary of his service and awards and his service number.

[parsimonious_instead]

I stumbled upon this fascinating Korean War after action report a while back... posted it to my blog, because I felt it was well written, interesting and a bit moving, too.

http://eightshotsandaping.blogspot.com/2011/10/how-leadership-makes-difference.html

[dannyr3_8]

My great grandpa passed last year and when looking thru some things found out he was a korean war vet which is odd because he always said he never was in the military and i cant seem to find anything about him or what regiment or platoon he was in anywhere, also i found out from my grandpa that he seems to remember hearing that he might have used a m1 garand experimental rifle one of the predecesors to the m14, so i was wondering if there is any way of confirming this thru military records or anywhere i could find out what unit he was in?
thanks for all of your helpfull answers gunnerboy i appologize i didn't mean to jack your thread

[Shadow 7D]

Oh, and the army records facility suffered a fire in the 90's and lost hundreds of thousands of records, so they may not be able to find his record, or what they find may be damaged.

[marv]

Good luck with the records in St. Louis. I'm a Korea vet and tried to get a fresh copy of my DD214. They said my records were destroyed along with thousands of others in a fire. My birth certificate was destroyed in the 1937 flood in my hometown. My dogtags were stolen my last night in the Army in the transient barracks. Guess I'm a non-person.

[Toforo]

Good luck with the records in St. Louis. I'm a Korea vet and tried to get a fresh copy of my DD214. They said my records were destroyed along with thousands of others in a fire. My birth certificate was destroyed in the 1937 flood in my hometown. My dogtags were stolen my last night in the Army in the transient barracks. Guess I'm a non-person.
If you've ever been treated at a VA hospital, they MIGHT (actually, a good chance) have a copy of your DD214 on micro-fiche -

- feel free to contact me for additional information.

[Trebor]

You aren't going to find anything from his military records that will say what small arm he was issued, even it was something experimental. Likely that family story will just stay a story.

The closest you *might* find would be if he qualified with any specific standard weapon, and then only if that wound up getting recorded on any records that survive today.

[Shadow 7D]

Actually, you can
just not in his records in St. Louis
they would be in http://www.history.army.mil/
Carlisle Barracks in Pennsylvanian
the Army supposedly keeps everything, including the duty logs (Ah the though of my horrible handwriting preserved for eternity..)

If you can find his unit out, you can find if the unit was issued one. And if so, maybe if he was too.

[HDCamel]

Or witness Viet Nam.

Or any other of our wars & police actions since WWII.

Have we really gained anything out of any of them??

rc
The Korean War was probably the event most responsible for the successes of the Civil Rights Movement.

Other than that, I don't know it this has changed, but I think that all drill instructors have to have combat experience. Otherwise it's the blind leading the blind, you know.
It may seem cold, but by keeping a stock of soldiers with combat experience we ensure that future generations of soldiers will benefit from that experience in their own training and, thus, will be better prepared if/when they are called upon to fight.

We also test weapons, tactics, and training much the same way that Nazi Germany did with the Spanish Civil War.

So they're not COMPLETELY without benefit.

[memphisjim]

my neighbor was on k,orea he carried a grease gun

[Gunnerboy]

Shadow7D thats what im gonna do is find out his unit then go thru some other lovely paper work to hopefully see if this story is true or not im almost thinking that my great grandpa was into something a little secretive cause he never told my grandpa about any missions or battles just that he had a strange new rifle.

[dogrunner]

Another access point you might want to explore is Ancestry.com....I confirmed a Great Grandfathers Civil War service on that site, and used that information to obtain his complete service record from the National Archives.

Even down to the point that he was relieved of 25.00 in his pay for losing both his canteen and uniform scales.........after being shot to hell at Fredricksburg!!! Muster rolls were really interesting as well, particularily as to the names that keep re appearing in the region of SW Penna. he was from.

You might be really surprized at what you'll find.

[Krogen]

It may seem cold, but by keeping a stock of soldiers with combat experience we ensure that future generations of soldiers will benefit from that experience in their own training and, thus, will be better prepared if/when they are called upon to fight.

My ex father-in-law flew Hueys in Viet Nam. He claimed it was a "training war" for just the reasons you describe.

[JFrame]

My dad transitioned over from the military in WWII to the civilian intel community after the war. He wound up being in Korea when hostilities broke out. He was on the Pusan Perimeter along with the rest of the U.S. contingent, expecting at any moment to be shoved out to sea by the invading North, when the Inchon landing took place.

Ergo, to my dad, Gen. MacArthur forever remained the big right toe of God. :)


.

[SSN Vet]

It is not nor ever will be forgotton to those of us who were there. The sad part is those that never came back from a war that gained nothing witness todays North Korean status.

I have several Korean friends (all middle aged) and believe me, they will never tell you that the U.S. fought for nothing, as their freedom and very lives were saved by our sacrifices.

As happened in Viet Nam, we counted the cost of victory and called it quits, leaving a tyranical mad man in power, and now they are a nuclear threat.

I'll bet that's one facet of the cost counting that Ike never took into consideration.

Unfortunately, the younger generation of Koreans doesn't appear to have any appreciation for what we did for them and how quickly they could lose it all.

[parsimonious_instead]

You could count Korea as more of a victory than Vietnam, since half of the country remained free after we left.
The VC nearly immolated themselves during Tet, and afterward we began fighting NVA, who fought more conventionally - the way we wanted to all along.
I'm not sure why we didn't simply invade the North... right after Tet the enemy were probably in an exploitable disarray - I don't see why Army and Marine units couldn't have formed an anvil along the DMZ, and a combined aerial and amphibious landing in the North as the hammer.
As for this experimental rifle, is it possible that it was simply a Garand modified to accept a box magazine?

[788Ham]

I know only about Korea through history books, but Viet Nam is still very fresh in my mind today! Winning over there, or losing, its never been defined, I just know my older brother and I served during this time. I was proud to serve my country then, and still am to this day, coming back a disabled veteran wasn't in the cards when I signed up, but if I were 48 years younger, I'd still sign up again tomorrow!

[snubbies]

Granted half the country remained free but they were free before 1950. Had we listened to McArthur we would have an undivided Korea.

[sidibear]

A huge big thank you to all you vets.

Please bear with me as I don't want to hijack the thread just share a little of my experience in searching for information.

My grandfather was in WW2 and Korea. I had a massive task to find out anything about him but the search and hassles are well worth it, took me around 11 years, but that's another story. (Basically my father was a GI war child and was adopted, he found his mother and I started a search for his father.If you want the full story drop me a pm with your email addy and I will send you the PDF).

Seriously, good luck with your search and don't ever give up.

His service record reads: Ardennes, Rhineland, Central Europe, Normandy, Northern France, (In Europe 28th July 1943 - November 1945) Korea (1952-53) Detachment D, HQ & Service, MP Group 8137 AU 4th MP Service company APO 59 Korea. Two Purple Hearts, WW2 victory medal, good conduct medal, European-African-Middle eastern Campaign Medal. Korean Service medal, United Nation medal.


Am I proud of him? You betcha.


As I said, I don't want to hijack this thread but f you want to see his photos I have from Korea they are posted on here, seventh post down.
http://www.mausercentral.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=31635&p=237726&hilit=koje+do#p237726

[ants]

Gunnerboy didn't say his great grandfather HAD an M14, but he had an m1 garand experimental rifle one of the predecesors to the m14.Those M14 history books (and even wikipedia) explain that there were experimental versions of the M1 Garand tested from the early 1940's through the T47 in 1956. Some were select fire, some were shortened carbine versions, some used box magazines, different stocks, different sights, etc.

Although doubtful they were used in combat, Gunner's great-grandpa may have used one before or after his Korea deployment, back home on a base somewhere.





Note: The fire at the National Archives occured in 1973.

From the web site http://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records/ :
Please note: Records are accessioned into the National Archives, and become archival, 62 years after the service member's separation from the military. This is a rolling date; hence, the current year, 2011, minus 62 years is 1949. Records with a discharge date of 1949 or prior are archival and are open to the public. Records with a discharge date of 1949 or after are non-archival and are maintained under the Federal Records Center program. Non-archival records are subject to access restrictions.

[medalguy]

Good luck in your records search. Note that it is very possible that the 5 bronze stars you mentioned may not be Bronze Star Medals but bronze service stars attached to one of his service medals. A bronze service star is used to denote multiple awards of a medal or multiple battle campaigns. They are often referred to as campaign or battle stars.

[exavid]

Doesn't seem likely there was an M14 prototype in 1950, the design was completed in 1954. Likewise it would have caused a problem with ammo supply since the Garand shot 30-06 and the M14 was a .308 (7.62 Nato). I had the pleasure of training with the M14 in the Army and sure wish they'd have let me keep one. Fine rifle, a lot handier than the Garand but accurate and great shooting. Never had a problem qualifying Expert every year with that fine rifle.

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

One book I read on the Korean War said you only have to compare and contrast Pyongyang and Seoul to ask if it was worth it.
They have-or had-FOs with mortar platoons, so he could have been permanently assigned to an infantry unit.

[J-Bar]

Or witness Viet Nam.

Or any other of our wars & police actions since WWII.

Have we really gained anything out of any of them??

rc
Sometimes just being willing to fight is more important than winning.

I disagree with those who say we lost in Viet Nam. America showed it would stand and fight. Without that, the Berlin wall might not have come down.

In Korea, the US stood by its promise to support South Korea. Compare South Korea to North Korea today. I think it was worth it.

George Washington did not win all his battles. But by being willing to fight, a new nation was born. He won the important one.

And thanks for your service, those of you who served.