WWII Dog Tags With Prewar Serial Number

[Russell 1910]

I picked up this set of tags not too long ago and have been trying to locate this man via ancestry.com as well as the NARA military records search with little luck.

 

The serial number appears to be one of the six-million block established March 1919 running to July 1940. It looks to be the 6,300,001-6,400,000 for the Southern Dept.

 

I have not been able to locate him in NARA which would seem to indicate he enlisted prior to 1938 (NARA indicates their records are from 1938 on).

 

Anyone have a suggestion on other web sites or available resources to check?

 

 

Also, where might I be able to obtain a copy of The Journal of The Orders and Medals Society of America:

Volume 35, No 35, Oct 1984

Volume 43, No 7, July 1992

 

and/or

 

The G.I. Journal

Volume 1 No 11, Jan-Feb 1998

Volume 1 No 12, Mar-Apr 1998

 

These apparently have the detailed info on serial number blocks down to the unit level. If anyone would be willing to provide copies, please send me a pm note. Thanks.

[Wailuna]

I too would be interested to know how series 6###### serial numbers were allocated. I have service records of several soldiers of this vintage and I can discern no clear pattern based on their date or place of enlistment. Here are some examples (in order of enlistment date):

 

ASN* Year Place

606 1920 NJ

673 1925 PI (Philippine Scout)

681 1929 VA

624 1931 OK

655 1935 CA

628 1939 TX

691 1939 IL

693 1939 IA

698 1940 NY

 

*first three digits of ASN

[Russell 1910]

I picked up this set of tags not too long ago and have been trying to locate this man via ancestry.com as well as the NARA military records search with little luck.

 

The serial number appears to be one of the six-million block established March 1919 running to July 1940. It looks to be the 6,300,001-6,400,000 for the Southern Dept.

 

I have not been able to locate him in NARA which would seem to indicate he enlisted prior to 1938 (NARA indicates their records are from 1938 on).

 

Anyone have a suggestion on other web sites or available resources to check?

 

 

Also, where might I be able to obtain a copy of The Journal of The Orders and Medals Society of America:

Volume 35, No 35, Oct 1984

Volume 43, No 7, July 1992

 

and/or

 

The G.I. Journal

Volume 1 No 11, Jan-Feb 1998

Volume 1 No 12, Mar-Apr 1998

 

These apparently have the detailed info on serial number blocks down to the unit level. If anyone would be willing to provide copies, please send me a pm note. Thanks.

 

Clarification on my initial post: I am interested in both WWI, inter war and WWII etc serial number information. Thanks

[GLM]

Clarification on my initial post: I am interested in both WWI, inter war and WWII etc serial number information. Thanks

 

This information doesn't have anything to do with pre-war serial numbers, but anyone who researches SN's, especially in this WWII SN range through NARA's AAD might find this interesting.

 

When I first tried to find my father's records, I kept coming up blank, with nothing listed or shown for him. I wrote an email to NARA and got this reply. There appears to be a pretty good sized chunk of SN's missing and not listed.

 

Gary

 

Their reply:

 

Dear Mr. Mohrlang:

 

This is in response to your email dated August 14, 2005, stating that you noticed in the military service numbers section of the Access to Archival Databases (AAD) resource url: http://www.archives.gov/aad/index.html, that your father, Raymond (NMI) Mohrlang, serial number of 37328158 wasn't listed. You say he served in the U.S. Army from 1942 until 1948.

 

The Electronic and Special Media Records Services Division of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the unit you contacted, has custody of the World War II Army Enlistment records and makes it accessible via AAD. To verify that your father's record wasn't included in the ASNF file, I also did a search in the World War II Army Enlistment records, Record Group 64 using the serial number (37328158) with "No Records" found. There are several possible reasons why the record of your father, Raymond Mohrlang, serial number 37328158, doesn't appear in the World War II Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File (ASNF). There are known gaps of serial numbers that exist in the ASNF. Using your father's serial number, I compared the serial number (37328158) to the serial number ranges included in ASNF. You father serial number falls between two serial number ranges (37-103-674 through 37-108-148) and (37-338-373 through 37-420-579) that are in the ASNF file. That may explain why your father's record doesn't appear in the ASNF. For more details on the errors in the World War II Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, you may want to read through the series description, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), which is accessible via AAD. Return to the "Series Description" page. Scroll down and click on "view" beside Scanned Documentation. Next, on this page scroll down and click on "Frequently Asked Questions about Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File," which explains the limitations of the Electronic Army Serial Number File (ASNF).

 

You may wish to contact NARA's National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) to obtain your father's service records. The address is NARA's National Personnel Records Center (NPRC), Military Personnel Records Division, 9700 Page Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63132. The NPRC is the depository for military service records for most personnel discharged since the early 20th century from the U.S. Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Coast Guard. Individual military service records are not online. Veterans or next-of-kin of deceased veterans can order record copies electronically from NPRC by using www.archives.gov/veterans/evetrecs/index.html. All requestors should visit the NPRC website at http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-...nnel/index.html.

 

We hope this information is helpful. If you have any other questions about the holdings or services of the Electronic and Special Media Records Services Division, please contact us. Our email address is [email protected] and our telephone number is 301-837-0470.

 

Sincerely,

Constantine E. Zervos

Archives Technician

Electronic and Special Media

Records Services Division (NWME)

[GLM]

Just did some quick calculator math to their above reply and the block of missing SN's between the two blocks listed comes out to 312, 431, so unless I'm wrong, this would be the number of missing files, right? A researchers nightmare!

 

Gary