Treasure Chest Thursday: Dad's military personnel file, part four

I'm sharing the recently-acquired military personnel file for my dad, a WWII U.S. Naval aviator in the Pacific, a few pages at a time.  Click here to see what I've posted so far, and click on any image to enlarge it.

Although a copy of my dad's military separation document is one of the last items in his OMPF (Official Military Personnel File), I'm posting the scanned original as part four of this series.  Curiously, the file doesn't contain documents detailing his training as an aviator cadet, but this form lists the types of instruction he received with the location and duration of each, along with a wealth of other info. (Have you neglected military records in your own 20th-century research?  You might be surprised at how much info they contain.)  It seemed a logical next post as I discuss Dad's military career chronologically.

Notice of Separation from U.S. Naval Service (Form NAVPERS 553) for George Constant Hall, 21 Dec. 1945, New Orleans, Louisiana.  Digital scan of original privately held by the Hall family, La.  

A military separation document can provide a lot of genealogical information.  This one form contains: 

• my father's full name
• birth date and place
• residence
• date of enlistment
• date of entry into active duty
• date of commission
• date of separation, and
• place of separation.  

It also details the places Dad received specialized training and the length of each course:

• "PrepFlight," Natchitoches, La., 13 weeks
• "WTS," Lafayette, La., 14 weeks
• "PreFlight," Athens, Ga., 12 weeks
• "Primary, St. Louis, 12 weeks
• "Basic," "Instruments," and "Advanced," Pensacola, Fla., 27 weeks.

The form states that he served in Fighting Squadron Six (also known as VF-6).  Dad was a fighter pilot, and the form tells us that he served aboard the USS Hancock, an aircraft carrier stationed out of NAS Hilo, Hawaii.

Also given are dates and details of his previous employment, as a "derrickman (oil)" for the Union Sulphur Co. in Sulphur, La., and his preference (at the time) to work in aviation after leaving the Navy.  The form also lists his formal education (high school) and vocational training (3 months of machinist instruction) as of December, 1945.

Oh, and it tells me that Dad's draft board was in Sulphur, La., where the Hall family had lived since the 1930s.  For World War II draft records, only the Fourth Registration ("the old man's draft") is currently open to the public due to privacy laws.  I can wait for Dad's registration record--I don't expect to find any info I don't already know--but this is a great clue for my "mystery grandpa" Robert Bunyan Hall, who may have qualified for that registration (men who born on or between 28 April 1877 and 16 February 1897 who were not already in the military -- Grandpa's birth year is listed as 1875, 1877 and 1878 on various forms).  Currently, Ancestry.com does not have the Louisiana records (some records are online there), but they are available on microfilm.  Woo hoo!

While today's military separation forms (detailing release or discharge from active duty) are referred to as "DD Form 214" or "DD-214," the forms had other designations in the past.  The National Archives website states: "Before January 1, 1950, several similar forms were used by the military services, including the WD AGO 53, WD AGO 55, WD AGO 53-55, NAVPERS 553, NAVMC 78PD, and the NAVCG 553."  Find out more about requesting military personnel files here.

Copyright 2010 by Liz Hall Morgan.  All rights reserved.

Treasure Chest Thursday: Dad's military personnel file, part one

I received my late dad's military personnel file in the mail last week.  I knew it would have a lot of informative yet dry facts, but I also have found some surprising and fun things in it, so I thought I'd share a few pages at a time.  It was worth the two-to-three-month wait for the price: free!  (Contact the National Archives if you'd like to request your relative's records.  Be sure to ask for the entire file if you are requesting records for family history purposes.)

Here are a few of the items (click on any photo in my blog to enlarge it):

Some of the most interesting things were in Dad's initial application to become a Naval Reserve aviation cadet: a handwritten letter from Dad, recommendation letters, the most handwriting of my Grandpa Hall's (on a form) that I've ever seen, and dad's high school transcript, not to mention his photo at age 20, looking a lot like my nephew (those ears! those curls!).

Dad graduated in 1940 and, knowing the draft was coming, thought he'd join the Navy after hearing about it from his brother Bob.  Then he saw a newspaper ad saying high school graduates could apply for the Navy's aviation training, and that was it for him.

George Hall, December 2008, National Naval Aviation Museum, Pensacola, FL, with the ad that started it all.  Photo courtesy of my sis.

For more, read my Part 2 post here.

Copyright 2010 by Liz Hall Morgan