Korean war vet question?

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Gunnerboy

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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?
 
Records

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
 
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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.
 
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snubbies said:
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
Click to expand...
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
 
he was on a 4.5 in gun fa but i have yet to find out what that is
Click to expand...
Say 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
 
Not Forgotton

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.
 
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
 
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.
 
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
 
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
 
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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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
Gunnerboy said:
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?
Click to expand...
thanks for all of your helpfull answers gunnerboy i appologize i didn't mean to jack your thread
 
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.
 
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.
 
marv said:
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.
Click to expand...
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
rcmodel said:
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
Click to expand...
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.
 
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