THUNDERBIRDS1965 Posted July 6 #1 Posted July 6 Hello everyone, I wanted to share a little story about something that happened to me back in the 1980s. I was young at the time, and my father and I decided to drop off some trash at a local dump. To my surprise, I found about ten U.S.A.A.F. B-4 bags that were dirty and in very poor condition. At the time, I decided to salvage only the side panels of the bags that had somewhat legible markings; all of them had green tags around the handles indicating "non-repairable." There were also felt-soled boots marked "Air Ministry." In hindsight, I should have kept them intact instead of cutting them up, but I was young. Only one was in good condition—though very dirty—a B-4 bag belonging to a specific airman from the 44th BG, 506th BS. I assume they all belonged to airmen? If you could help me identify these men, I would be very grateful. I never found out who had discarded all these bags at that location. They came from Rouen, France. Thank you for your invaluable help. Have a good day. Laurent
aznation Posted July 7 #2 Posted July 7 Hello Laurent, You know you really might want to think about learning how to do research yourself if you're going to have so many items that need researching. The nice people on this forum don't mind helping people occasionally but there comes a point when you have to help yourself. I hope you don't take this personally but we're here to help but you need to at some point do your part. Here's some posts to get you started on becoming a researcher of your own items. See the items pinned to the top of the link below. https://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/forum/88-individual-and-unit-research/ https://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/413493-how-to-find-wwii-morning-reports-on-naras-website-using-service-number-or-name/#comment-3173251 ALSO, When generally conducting research I usually stick to Newspapers.com (which by the way is the best I've found out of the three major paid subscriptions), a FREE newspaper article website is fultonhistory.com (which I've found is mostly for newspapers on the east coast of the U.S. and sometimes will have articles that you can't find on the paid sites), Ancestry.com (which I get access to for free online through my local library, otherwise it's a paid subscription), the FREE alternative to Ancestry.com would be FamilySearch.org (which contains most everything that Ancestry.com has and occasionally might have a few tidbits more, although less user friendly than Ancestry), Find-A-Grave.com (A free site, which I've found to be extremely helpful when conducting searches on items were you might only be able to see partial names and for their obituaries and photos sometimes), NARA (for Morning Reports and Award Cards/Info, as well as other documents and photographs). Below, I've copies all the URL's for websites I have used to conduct research from time to time and sometimes more frequently than that in the past. I have them all save under a folder in Google Chrome called Military Reference. I believe anyone can copy and paste some or all of these into your own bookmarks folder on Chrome or into your Favorites folder on a Windows machine. https://catalog.archives.gov/search?q="Award Cards"&f.recordGroupNoCollectionId=64 https://archive.org/details/1945ServiceRibbonGuide/1945 Service Ribbon Guide.jpg http://www.watchcount.com/#serp http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1942_1.html https://archives.lib.state.ma.us/handle/2452/124230 https://dmna.ny.gov/historic/reghist/wwii/infantry/27thInfDiv/Pictorial_History/27thInfDiv_PH_A.htm https://www.511pir.com/ http://accident-report.com/officers/usa/30_35/3035dir.html https://media.defense.gov/2010/Sep/21/2001330256/-1/-1/0/AFD-100921-044.pdf https://www.ww2-airborne.us/units/504/504.html http://www.joebaugher.com/ http://amache.org/ http://www.americanairmuseum.com/ https://www.americanancestors.org/index.aspx http://aafcollection.info/items/list.php http://www.ww2wings.com/ https://www.ww2wings.com/main.shtml http://www.b26.com/ http://www.cdnmilitarycollectors.com/ https://www.nps.gov/wapa/learn/historyculture/guam-armed-forces-casualties.htm http://www.cbi-history.com/part_iii_adg.html https://sites.google.com/view/ccc-uniforms/home https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ https://www.ancestrypaths.com/military-records/civil-war-military-records-colored-troops/ https://www.classicfirearms.com/ http://www.criticalpast.com/ http://hglanham.tripod.com/metalinsignia2/datingclutches.html http://encyclopedia.densho.org/ https://thechaplainkit.com/history/general-military-history/determining-dates-of-historic-military-clothing-equipment/ http://dscdatabase.com/ https://www.etohistory.com/members?utm_source=so&configurationId=7b6d98dd-919d-40d8-b9d5-ada3ce5f9949&actionId=8adaa0b8-8a25-49e1-90ab-e9ac0ad45ef7&cid=5cadfdb9-dbb6-4207-946a-cfd41be71b1d&utm_content=a3bfe6a9-402d-486a-bb76-52ef79df458e&utm_campaign=8e77cc7f-d03d-47e8-8a25-7253a8f21ce4&utm_medium=mail http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp http://www.findagrave.com/ https://www.fdmuseum.org/researchers/digital-archives/ https://firstdivisionmuseum.nmtvault.com/jsp/PsSearchResults.jsp https://www.gutenberg.org/ http://fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html http://www.gaylord.com/ https://jref.com/forums/good-luck-flags-militaria.206/ https://ddr.densho.org/browse/facility/4/ https://gravelocator.cem.va.gov/ngl/ https://griffinmilitaria.com/ http://gunstands.com/index.htm https://valor.militarytimes.com/ http://www.hollingermetaledge.com/ https://www.honorstates.org/ https://www.usmcu.edu/Portals/218/Hough_The Assault on Peleliu.pdf https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/how-to-decode-a-wwii-army-serial-number/ https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/ref/FM/index.html https://archive.org/search.php?query="Charles L. Goodwin" Agromeck&sin=TXT https://www.aircraftinformation.info/JB_AIF/index.htm https://www.koreanwar.org/ http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/Pages/war-diaries-ship-logs-operations-records.aspx#c https://www.usmcu.edu/Research/Marine-Corps-History-Division/Research-Tools-Facts-and-Figures/Casualty-Card-Database/ https://www.goldenarrowresearch.com/marine-corps-veteran-locator/ https://achh.army.mil/regiment/root-valor https://www.etohistory.com/members?utm_campaign=8e77cc7f-d03d-47e8-8a25-7253a8f21ce4&utm_source=so https://catalog.archives.gov/search-within/601682 https://www.militaryfightingknives.com/ http://www.wartimecollectables.com/hallmarks-of-us-badges---insignia.html https://www.usamm.com/pages/military-medals-and-ribbons-precedence-chart https://www.sos.mo.gov/mdh/topics https://catalog.archives.gov/advanced-search https://catalog.archives.gov/ https://wwwnet-dos.state.nj.us/DOS_ArchivesDBPortal/WWICards.aspx#military https://www.worldwar1centennial.org/index.php/educate/places/official-bulletin.html https://catalog.archives.gov/search?q=Official military personnel file&f.oldScope=(descriptions or online)&SearchType=advanced https://www.archives.gov/research/military/veterans/online https://history.army.mil/documents/ETO-OB/ETOOB-TOC.htm http://grams.pacifichistoricparks.org/index.php http://www.digitalarchives.state.pa.us/archive.asp http://mypatchplaque.com/products/ http://remembrance-project.janm.org/ http://www.ruddlesmills.com/index.html https://www.vetfriends.com/search/search_veterans_and_personnel.cfm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_number_(United_States_Army) https://www.dpaa.mil/Portals/85/Documents/WWIIAccounting/united_states_army_air_forces.html https://sortedbyname.com/index.html https://sortedbyname.com/ https://stewartsmilitaryantiques.com/ https://dissolve.com/ http://tankdestroyer.net/ https://teva.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/search http://www.worldwar1.com/dbc/camph.htm http://www.coffeltdatabase.org/ http://www.genealogycenter.info/military/wwii/index.php https://blog.atthefront.com/the-field-jacket/ https://www.vfw.org/ https://tioh.army.mil/Catalog/RecentlyAdded.aspx http://www.usarmypatches.com/ https://www.med-dept.com/articles/u-s-army-ww2-dog-tags/ http://www.usmilitaryknives.com/Table of Contents.htm https://www.universityproducts.com/ https://www.armydivs.com/ https://www.pinterest.com/pin/844493674289480/ https://www.usww2uniforms.com/armyindex.html https://www.omsa.org/us-medal-rolls-2/ https://www.omsa.org/MedalRolls/US_MexBdr.php http://www.naval-history.net/WW2UScasaaDB-USNBPbyDate1941-42.htm https://catalog.archives.gov/search?q=*:*&f.ancestorNaIds=643795&sort=naIdSort asc http://usafupt.com/default.htm http://www.usafpatches.com/ https://www.hqmc.marines.mil/Agencies/USMC-FOIA/WWIISSCitations/ https://libguides.usna.edu/sca/digital https://www.cem.va.gov/nationwide-gravesite-locator/ http://www.loc.gov/vets/ https://www.vietnamgear.com/equipment.aspx?cat=2 https://www.vpnavy.com/index1.html https://www.etohistory.com/ https://wetransfer.com/ https://www.med-dept.com/ http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/338106-wwii-hospital-admission-card-files-1942-1954-now-on-ancestry/ https://wwiiregistry.abmc.gov/search-the-registry/ https://29thdivisionassociation.com/morning-reports/ http://wwii-enlistment.com/ Take care and have a blessed day! 🇺🇸
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