Military Monday - Honorable Discharge

This is the Honorable Discharge certificate for my Grandfather, William Patrick Bellew.    It shows that he was discharged on Nov 28, 1944, at Fletcher General Hospital in Cambridge Ohio after being transferred there for care of his wounds received on July 29, 1944.     This certificate was obviously folded while it was kept and I believe he carried it with him for sometime.  

The reverse of this document shows the Enlisted Record for the soldier, which I have previously posted here.

Military Monday - WWII Crew Assignment

This is a document that I received from a friend who is very interested in the history of the 94th Bomb Group of the Army Air Force during WWII. Much of this group was stationed at Bury St. Edmunds base in England. This Special Orders document dated Feb 21, 1944 shows my grandfather William Bellew, as being assigned to the crew of 1st Lt. Floyd Butler, the pilot that he flew with on every mission in the war, with the exception of his last.

This is just one more piece to the puzzle in putting together the military history of my family. Many of these Bomb Groups have message boards and forums full of very knowledgeable members who can help you find out the information about your soldier.

Military Monday & Adams News clip of the week

If you're a regular visitor then you certainly know by now that I've been tracking down all things military related to my Grandfather's WWII military service.

Having received his medals just a couple of weeks ago (see them here) I wanted to post this news clip from his home town at the time of the war (Adams MA). The article gives details on Grandad being awarded the Air Medal and the Oak Leaf Cluster. Apparently he had written to Grandma telling her all about them and included the documents that were given when the medal was awarded. The article mentions the documents and quotes the comments listed. I have the originals of these documents - one of which is also posted here.

The newspaper article appeared in the paper on May 22, 1944, just two months before he was wounded and returned to the States.










News clipping image: Ancestry.com. North Adams Transcript (North Adams, Massachusetts) [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. Original data: North Adams Transcript. North Adams, MA, USA. Database created from microfilm copies of the newspaper.

Yes, It took an act of Congress!

It all started almost a year ago - a search on the Archives website for my Grandfather's Military Records. I had no idea how to use their site, but found his record, which didn't contain much and also found an area to look up various other US military history. Right there on the screen I see a link "Replacement Medals and Awards" . This link was interesting to say the least so I went there.

Granddad's medals have been missing for quite some time, all children had been asked - did you bury them with him? Everyone said no. Grandma didn't know where they were - probably lost in a move or left behind somewhere. Granddad has been gone since 1975. Grandma can't remember the last time they actually had his medals. Needless to say, this was making me sick so I had to investigate further the possibilities of getting them replaced.

On the NARA site there is a form to complete. Having all of Granddad's military documents in hand I quickly went to work. Submitted my paperwork and then the waiting began. I had quite a time with these people and you can read all about it in this post.

I felt that I hadn't been treated fairly by the NPRC and I did not just want to go to some military surplus and purchase medals. I wanted them from the Air Force! As I said in that previous post, I contacted my local Congresswoman's office and they promised to help. That was last October 2008. I received some paperwork in the mail, copies of requests submitted by them to the military, with a big "CONGRESSIONAL" stamp across the front. Her office has been in constant communication with me about the medals and today they finally arrived!

Now, this was no small undertaking for me, but as far as I'm concerned it was well worth it. It only took a year, and now I've got medals, issued by the Air Force based on my Grandfather's records. My persistance finally paid off and my Grandma is going to be filled with joy when she sees them!

I received word yesterday that they were coming - you would think that when the box came today I would have just ripped and teared right into it. Believe me, it was hard to contain myself, but I wanted to sit down and take it all in. I reached into the inner-envelope and pulled out a box, opened it and cried. The Purple Heart medal is just beautiful. I've never seen one up-close and personal.

The next box I opened contained his Air Medal

The package also contained an Honorable Service Lapel Button, the European-African Middle Eastern Campaign medal, the American Campaign medal, and the WWII Victory medal.

I am so thankful to now again have this lost piece of history for my family.

Military Monday - Enlisted Record Document

Today's Military post is the Enlisted Record of William Bellew.

An enlisted record document details the soldier's hometown, his physical description, how long he/she served and where. Also included is where they were discharged or detached from (in this case, the Fletcher General Hospital in Ohio), wounds received, vaccination details and the physical condition of the soldier when discharged.

There is an area for listing the locations of active duty, what medals are due to the soldier, what pay is due, and any days lost during duty.


This document is on the reverse of the Honorable Discharge certificate.

Military Monday - Form DD214 or Report of Separation

When a soldier leaves the military and has had active duty (or active duty training for more than 90 days), a DD214 is generated showing his military history. During WWII, this for was referred to as WD AGO 53 or a Report of Separation. For US military researchers these documents are available from the Archives. On their main page look under the "Most Requested" box and choose military record. The Archives site states that the DD214 can be obtained for free by a soldier or next-of-kin to the soldier. I was interested in getting another copy of my Grandfathers because as you can see, his appeared to have been carried around in his wallet for 30 years.

This Report shows the following information:

• Name
• Army Serial Number
• Grade
• Organization
• Date of Separation
• Place of Separation
• Permanent Address
• Date of Birth
• Place of Birth
• Color Eyes & Hair
• Height
• Weight
• Number of Dependents
• Date of Induction
• Date of Entry into Active Service
• Place of Entry
• County and State
• Home address at time of entry
• Military Occupation
• Spec Ser Number
• Military Qualifications
• Battles
• Decorations and Citations
• Wounds Received in Action & Date
• Immunizations
• Service Outside of the US - where stationed
• Reason for separation
• Pay Data
• Insurance information
• Right Thumb Print
• Signature of Soldier
• Signature of Officer

This form can be ordered on line using the archives vet rec system. One warning - there may be additional paperwork to fill out after your request has been received, get as much info as you can on that soldier before applying, some of which may be available right there on the archives site.

If you go to their AAD (Access Archival Databases) search area of the Archives site and enter your ancestor's name in the search box, all databases that the name appears in will come up. If you'd rather target a specific battle or time of duty, select the military campaign your ancestor fought in first (for instance, I chose WWII) and on the next screen there is a search terms box as well. On this second screen I entered BELLEW, WILLIAM. This gave me results for where his name appeared in their available electronic databases for WWII. In this case, I chose "View Records" for the Electronic Army Serial Number database, which brought up seven results:

My Grandfather being the last on this list, I chose his record and the following screen came up which gave me a bit more information necessary to complete the request for his documents.

Check all the available databases for your ancestors, you may just have a vet in there somewhere. Happy Hunting!

Military Monday - What in the World is a Mission Report?

I was inspired by a post recently at GenBlog by Julie related to military terms. Reading her post took me back to about a year ago when I first entered the world of doing military research and how lost I felt in all the jargon. You can read Julie's post here.

I've written previous posts about my Grandfather, William Bellew's WWII military service. Luckily, I was blessed enough to have his original discharge papers folded tattered and torn as they were, available to me having been tucked away in a little box in my Grandmother's apartment. After finding these documents I wanted to know more, so where did I go? The National Archives of course? Admittedly, I didn't start there - wanting to seek out info from others who were familiar with what I was about to embark upon. I found a group website for his Bomb Group, signed myself up as a "member" and quickly typed a post to find out more. The response was incredible! Within two days my post had over 150 hits and more than 20 responses and I very quickly realized that I had a lot to learn about military jargon. For instance, one of the replies was:

"Flak in the target area was very effective, accounting for 30 aircraft being damaged. Aircraft 42-31449 landed at Beccles just short of Rougham due to major flak damage."

And another
"B-17G 42-31449 was from the 332nd BS and was flown by C. L. McDowell on this mission. He was leading the Low Squadron of the 94th 'A' Lead Group"

And another
"According to the July 29th 1944 94th BG 'Mission Formation Chart' Floyd N. Butler didn't fly on this mission. I have noticed though that he did fly on the mission the day before, July 28th, to the same target, Merseburg/Leuna. He led the 94th 'B' High Group in the 45th 'B' Combat Wing with Albert R. Waters in a 333rd BS aircraft"

.... Flak? what in the world is that? Who was McDowell? What was 333rd BS? What was a low squadron and a lead group? What are all those numbers for and where were Beccles and Rougham? I was quickly filled with many questions and thankfully I had come to the right place.

After gathering such info as what crew Granddad was assigned to :
Arriving from AAF Station #153 to the 94th BG, 19 Feb 1944 and further assigned to the 331st Squadron on 21 Feb 1944 :
1LT Floyd N. Butler (P) 0-790620
2Lt Earl E. Tjomsland (CP) 0-755791 KIA, 6 Oct 44
2LT Rodney L. Gunderson (B) 0-689462 KIA 6 Oct 44
2LT Vincent E. Bahl (N) 0-695850
S/Sgt John H. Callahan (748) 12031094
S/Sgt Roy G. Wander (757) 12207478
Sgt James T. Maloney (612) 32884631
Sgt Raymond V. Worthley (611) 39082043
Sgt Frederick R. Salvani (611) 32702044
Sgt William P. Bellew (611) 31210954

One of these guys quickly set out to find out if anyone from his crew was living. As a matter of fact one was, after calling this total stranger I found that Granddad wasn't flying with his regular crew that fateful day he was wounded, but had volunteered to go up with another pilot who was short a gunner (previous posts about this story are here and here) Mission reports they told me, we need the mission reports! What on earth is a mission report? Well, almost a year later - and it's been quite a journey, too much for this post; I've got them in my little hands. This is not light reading folks!

A Mission Report is just that, a report written about the mission flown that day for a particular Bomb Group. In my case, there are two mission reports written by the Operations Officers and reports or narratives written by the Lead Bombardiers for both A and B groups of planes flying on this mission that day. "That Day" being the day that my Grandfather was wounded. I really wanted to know who he was flying with and if any of that crew was still living!

The first two reports contain detailed information on what time the planes took off, what the target was, what formation was being flown (including chart of each plane by number and pilot), what time they passed the coast of England, what time they arrived on the coast of Germany, what time the target was reached, if the planes turned, and what time the "Bombs were away". If any planes left the formation due to damage, personnel injury, or malfucntion this was also noted. All of this info is in the first two pages.

Also included are several pages of plane formations, a malfunction and combat damage report (listing each plane with every little damage hole reported - more than 12 pages), a Group Navigator's report (detailing weather conditions and visibility and such stuff), a report from the Group Communications Officer listing such information as necessary for communication problems encountered during the misson or damage to communication equipment. If any planes aborted the mission there was a seperate sheet for each. There is a form that's completed showing that the gunners (3 on each plan) had been interrogated if there were any malfunctions in armament. There is a report showing how many guns were used (in total) and how many rounds were fired, and finally a photo and bomb plotting report, and photographs of the "target" area (copies are not very good). In all, there are more than 45 pages of information.

To get these reports, I had to know what date I wanted and what bomb group (his being the 94th). I ordered them through the National Archives website and they quickly replied with informaton for me about how many pages it was, the cost and the availability of the info. Once I placed the order (via check in the mail) it took about 3 weeks to get the info.

If you have an ancestor who was wounded, it could be of interest to get the mission report for the date of their injury. You may find some interesting facts if you can get through all the pages. These reports have helped me in two ways; First, Granddad's regular crew was not flying that day so he must've been with another crew as stated by the gentleman I spoke to during the summer. Second - there are two planes with damage details listed in this report that fit what we already know - one of them has been ruled out so it's possibly be the other... we're still trying to track down it's crew.

Thanks for reading!

Military Monday

Another Military post about my Bellew family today. I somehow missed Ancestry's release of the British Army WWI Service Records during November, and just began looking at the records last night. And what do you know? Yet ANOTHER Bellew family member was in the Army! This record is for my Great Grandfather, John Bellew Sr., (b 9/27/1889, Preston, Lancs, England; d 12/15/1958 Maryland USA) who served in the British Army for 4 years. Enlisting in February 1909 and discharged in 1913.

The first page of this record contains info such as the family street address, occupation & employment info of the individual (he was a weaver), and age at the time of enlistment. Other pages following give physical condition of the individual, stating that John was "Well Made", at a height of 5' 3.5", with a girth of 35". The last page lists all training, ranks and discharge information.

This database contains 4-5 pages for each soldier, making up a 'packet' of their time in the British Army. Yet another wonderful find for my family's military history! I've posted here the first page of his report.



Image: Ancestry.com. British Army WWI Service Records, 1914-1920 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2008. Original data:
War Office: Soldiers’ Documents, First World War ‘Burnt Documents’ (Microfilm Copies); (The National Archives Microfilm Publication WO363); Records created or inherited by the War Office, Armed Forces, Judge Advocate General, and related bodies; The National Archives of the UK (TNA), Kew, Surrey, England.

Military Monday

In Memory of Private JOHN BELLEW
# 5387456, 4th Bn., Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry
Died age 21 on 20 May 1940
Son of John and Margaret Bellew, of Adams, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Remembered with honour
ST. ANDRE COMMUNAL CEMETERY
Row AA, Grave 9

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Today's Military post is in remembrance of my Great Uncle John - An uncle the family never knew (see more info on John Bellew's life in a previous post here).

The above information was obtained at Commonwealth War Graves Commission Website.

Military Monday

Today, a view of a WWII Draft registration card for my Great Grandfather John Bellew. If you're not familiar with the draft registration cards, take a look - there's a lot of info to be obtained. This is a war that took one of John's son's lives and left another blinded in one eye. Surely he didn't expect to be drafted at the age of 52 but he was required to register nonetheless. This registration took place on April 27, 1942, and was required for all men born on or between 28 April 1877 and 16 February 1897 - between 45 and 64 years old - and who were not already in the US military.

Image: Ancestry.com. U.S. World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2007. Original data: United States, Selective Service System. Selective Service Registration Cards, World War II: Fourth Registration. National Archives and Records Administration Branch locations: National Archives and Records Administration Region Branches.

Is there a West Virginia Union Soldier in your ancestry?

Ok, you'd think that after all these years of doing research I'd pretty much know everything there is to know? NOT TRUE!!! Genealogists are learning all the time, whether it be a new tip to finding a document or somthing about military history. I tell you, military history is a whole other animal to me. Yes, most genealogists just love history itself, and I often wish I had paid more attention in high school :-) but the actual history of the military (and all the paperwork that's necessary to get ANYTHING???) It's just a giant black hole full of red tape to me.

Today, while visiting a site that I visit every week (sometimes several times a week) I found that they actually have a list of Union Soldiers who never claimed their medals awarded during the war. I cannot believe I had never visited this area before and was just amazed at the size of the list and my ignorance! I understand from reading up on this that these medals are still in their original packaging AND can be claimed by someone proving their relationship to the person. Note: According to the information below, it does not have to be a Direct relationship. I have seen comments from others stating that they claimed a Great-Great Uncle's medal.

Here's some info directly from the site:

"Many heirs of West Virginia Union veterans of the Civil War may be eligible to claim medals struck to honor their ancestors years ago. Most of the medals were claimed by the veterans themselves, their immediate families, or their descendants, but several thousand medals remain unclaimed. A list of the unclaimed medals is available in the Archives and History Library and on its website.

To claim an ancestor's medal, a claimant must submit his or her line of descent from the veteran along with documentation to support this line of descent. To establish line of descent, claimants must include copies of primary sources, including birth, death, marriage, will, deed, military,census, Bible records, etc. Old letters, diaries, marriage announcements, or obituaries may also prove helpful in supporting a descendant's claim. Please note that a family chart submitted without primary source documentation is not sufficient.

The claimant who establishes the most direct relationship to the veteran will be awarded the ancestor's medal six months from the date the fully documented claim is received by Archives and History. The purpose of the six-month waiting period is to allow for sufficient verification of the descendant's claim and for submission of counterclaim(s) by other potential descendant(s). In the case of equal claims, the descendant whose claim was received first will be awarded the medal."

If you know of a Civil War Union Soldier in your family's past, it's worth checking the site just to check the list. I've been busily checking mine this morning and comparing surnames with those on the list. It helps that a lot of my family comes from Virginia/West Virginia. I find it heartbreaking that these medals were never retrieved by the soldiers to pass down to us....

Heres the website link: http://www.wvculture.org/history/medals.html

My Quest to know more... Post #3

This is a news clipping from March 11, 1944 from a local paper in Adams MA where my Grandparents lived at the time my Grandfather entered the military. This clipping states that Grandma has received word that Granddad is in England. All of this sort of "news" was published in the local paper.

Another info packed post today on my search for my Grandfather's military service. Last week I promised to talk about military papers - all boring and such if you're not into this kind of thing but what a treasure to find for a genealologist!! However, if you don't look at every detail you could miss something AND all those details can also raise more questions. Of course, I have the subscriptions to the major records available on line at Ancestry and there is such a mass of info there it's sometimes overwhelming. But, nothing can compare to having the actual original documents in your hands. All tattered from time and folded and torn. At any rate, having Granddad's Seperation Report, his enlistment information and even his medal award documents wasn't enough. According to the docs he was discharged for wounds he rec'd on July 29th - a mission he volunteered to take due to a shortage of a gunner in another crew. How was he wounded? Where was he at the time? What plane was he on? All these things I wrote about in my previous posts - But, most importantly - where were these medals he received? No one in the family knew. Grandma couldn't recall what ever happened to them - probably lost in the many moves the family made after the war. Off I went to the 94th Bomb Group website again to see what info was available on medals - turns out I was referred to the National Archives website. To my surprise, the website stated that you could order replacement medals - Huzza!!! So, after many many many forms and paperwork and phone calls and months of waiting ..... they finally told me (in Sept of this year) that he had been out of the service too long - more than 60 years. Somthing they could have told me in the beginning, for I had provided them with his discharge date on the VERY first document completed, way back in February of this year!! This simply was not fair!! I set out to see if I could purchase replicas of the medals for they told me that "the military has more than met it's obligation in issuing replacement medals" this simply did not apply to my family!! It's not my fault that they fail to keep track of this stuff!

I heard along the way that your local state representatives of Congress could help in dealings with the Federal Gov't (after all that is their job) and election time was upon us so I decided to give it a shot - do you know that they responded to me IMMEDIATELY and began to look into the problem. Last week I received a copy of a letter from the National Personnel Records Center (the folks who issue the medals), sent to the Congresswoman's office and would you believe the order for the medals has already been placed? No long paperwork burden, no "form letters" just a nice letter stating that the medals have been ordered and the copy of the form was included. Unbelievable!!!! Today's Nov 19th and I don't have word of their receipt at the Congresswoman's office just yet but needless to say, I'm anxiously awaiting word from them every day.

My Quest to know more... Post #2

This is a photo of my Grandfather (second from left in the back row) and his regular flight crew - what a treasure to have received this from someone who actually flew with him!

As promised - here's more about my search for my Grandfather's military service information, continued from last Wednesday's post.

After reaching out and finding someone who flew with Granddad, and realizing that he wasn't with his regular crew on the day he was wounded I set out to determine just who he was flying with that day. Again, Chris knew much about this and let me know that I needed to find mission reports for the day. This would give us a clue about the damaged aircrafts and any lost during the mission... I must also note that Grandma told me that after he was wounded, Grandad was reported as "Missing In Action" and she receieved a telegram stating so. This was another clue - was it possible that his aircraft had to put down somewhere other than base and the crew originally thought to be missing? There are other documents (which apparently are MIA also) that detail the crew for each aircraft on any given mission, these reports which I believe are called Load Lists or Load Reports have been searched for by many - they're not available.

Knowing that I must have the mission reports for the day he was wounded, I went to the National Archives(http://archives.gov/) website and placed an order for them. I must say this was the easiest transaction I've had with those folks - much more on that later. At any rate, after a couple months the 36+ pages of information came to me in the mail. This stuff is not light reading by any means and if you're not up on your military terms of the time its very easy to get lost in all the jargon. At this time, I am in the process of making copies of some of the pages to send to Chris. He will research further and see if we can determine what plane he was on.

Next week I'll tell you about the military paperwork that I found in Grandma's papers, what it contained and all the questions that it brought about.

My Quest to know more... Post #1

I've been researching my family for years and only during the last 10 months or so have I ventured into the Military history. My Grandfather, William Bellew, was in the Army Airforce during WWII and was injured (lost his left eye) during a mission on July 29 1944. Already having his military documents in hand, I set out to find out what else there was to know - the rest of the story if you will. I came across a message board for his bomb group that put me in touch with a now dear friend in England, Chris, who lives near the base where Granddad was stationed. He is very knowledgeable in this area and, unbelievably, he managed to track down a living member of my Grandfather's regular crew! I was amazed and very nervous to call and speak to this man on the phone. He and his wife are just wonderful people and they were very glad to hear from me. He told me that Grandad volunteered to go up with another crew who was short a gunner on that day that he was wounded, and he was never seen again by his regular crew - they were never even told what became of him. He was glad to know that Granddad lived, returned home, had more children and lots of grandchildren.

Connections come in strange ways sometimes. It certainly pays to venture into other areas of the internet, such as message boards, rather than sticking to the records sites. You never know, a post might put you in touch with someone who actually knew your relative and you might make some really great friendships along the way! I called this post #1 because there's much more of this story to share... next week.