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Help with this Marine in Photo - Can he be in Army Engineers and Marines?


stratasfan
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I just did a quick search of the USMC Muster Rolls and there is a considerable amount of handwritten and typed documentation on a Marine named "Allan Navan" which came up when I widened the parameters for spelling. I didn't look too closely, but he seems to have served around the time period you're looking for, 1910-1914. I suppose it's not outside the realm of possibility he served under a slightly different name after leaving the Army the first time, and Mr. Navan had considerable sea duty with the Marine Corps between Mr. O'Nevins' first hitch in the Army and the American entry into World War I.

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  • 3 weeks later...

The Army actively recruited railroad employees to serve in Railway Engineer units. All of the combatant armies in France built and used light gauge rail lines to move men & materiel to and from the front. There was not enough time - or knowledgeable Army cadre - to train novice recruits for this type of work so the Army was eager to get them and put them to work. For example, there was a large rail maintenance yard in my home town and numerous local men served with both the U.S.14th Engineers and with railroad construction units of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF). Many were older fellas who had some real world rail work experience under their belts. One of the local CEF guys was 46 years old, had worked as a train engineer and had served in the British infantry during the Boer War in S. Africa. If you are interested in learning more, Forum Administrator RustyCanteen has posted quite a bit about the railway engineers here http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/221837-the-yanks-are-coming-krags-in-the-aef/

 

Your great grandfather's unit - the 12th Engineers - was among the first AEF units to be sent overseas, They reached France by the end of August 1917. Your great grandfather's enlistment date - June 29, 1918 - indicates he joined the unit while it was already in France.

 

Tom

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It was (and is still) a common practice for military members to change services. Remember that in the early 20th century, the USMC was a very small branch of the military. I have seen several uniforms of Marines who switched to another branch before and after WWII. The services were down sizing and the USMC received the biggest staff reduction of them all after WWII. Other reasons for transfer was changing or elimination of job fields.

 

I have a uniform of a WWI/Banana Wars Marine who joined the Army Air Corps and served in the UK for the duration of WWII.

 

I agree with the others above that since he was a railroad man, he may have been brought back into the Army due to a critical shortage of trained railroad engineers. The USMC at that time did not have that job specialty.

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