The best way to get this information is to look over the following website
http://www.history.navy.mil/
Specifically
http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq19-1.htm
I believe the part that will interest you most will be this.
" The National Personnel Records Center, 9700 Page Boulevard, St.
Louis, Missouri 63132-5100 has custody of the official individual
personnel records of Navy commissioned officers separated after 1902
and Navy enlisted personnel separated after 1885. These records
include the full name of the serviceman, next of kin, date of
enlistment, date retired, units with which he served, and any medals
and awards to which the veteran was entitled, as well as other
details. Information from these records is available to the veteran,
or if deceased, to the next of kin. Contrary to rumors, the 1973 fire
did not destroy Navy or Marine Corps records.
Through the Freedom of Information Act, the public has access to
certain military service information without the authorization of the
veteran, or the next-of-kin of deceased veterans. Examples of
information which may be available from official military personnel
files without an unwarranted invasion of privacy include: name,
service number, rank, dates of service, awards and decorations and
place of entrance and separation."
I feel that if you can give them enough information (which only you or
your immediate family will know) you will be able to get a full list
of the military activities for your uncle.
If your uncle was in active service before the two aforementioned
dates I would suggest trying this department
"The Civil and Old Military Records Branch, National Archives, 700
Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20408 (phone 202-357-5444) has
custody of records relating to naval officers from 1798 to 1902 and
enlisted men from 1798 to 1885. Naval service records of the
Revolutionary War period are fragmentary, including only such
information as the serviceman's name and rank, the name of the vessel
on which he served, and the dates of his service or the dates on which
he was paid. Abstracts of service performed by most commissioned
Regular Navy officers, volunteer naval officers of the Civil War
period, some noncommissioned officers, and a few professors and
teachers at the U.S. Naval Academy were compiled by the Navy
Department. These abstracts, covering the period 1798 to 1924, usually
provide the date of the officer's appointment, the date and nature of
changes in rank, as well as the date and nature of the termination of
his service. Prior to 1885, the Navy Department did not assemble any
compilations of service for enlisted men. Records pertaining to such
service are scattered among many files, registers, returns, reports,
and other related records held by the National Archives."
The website of the The National Personnel Records Center is located at
http://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records/
The following page gives you information on how to request military
service information
http://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records/get-service-records.html
However I feel you would be most successful speaking to them directly
through one of these ways and find out if the information is available
(I would suggest telephone as your first option).
The National Archives and Records Administration
8601 Adelphi Road
College Park, MD 20740-6001
1-866-272-6272
or
1-86-NARA-NARA
If neither of these government departments can help you (which, unless
you cannot give them enough information, I would highly doubt as they
are the definitive resource for all things naval, you won't find a
better database than they have) I would suggest doing name searches of
your uncle on google, if the name search shows too much information
add extra words such as his place of birth or river patrol in quotes
and this will help you narrow the search entries down.
If, after speaking to both the The Civil and Old Military Records
Branch AND The National Personnel Records Center and Google is not
showing you information pertaining to your uncle the last thing i
would suggest is to speak to family members and see what they
remember, if even they do not know anything it may be that the
information you require is not available.
I hope this points you in the right direction and the national
information archives can help you with this.
--Keystroke-ga |
Clarification of Answer by
keystroke-ga
on
26 Jul 2006 08:13 PDT
I will also add that I recently did just this very thing. I requested
a family member's records-- one note is that you must be next of kin
to request the records. Brothers, sisters and children are considered
next of kin, but not nieces and nephews. For the family member I was
seeking records of, I had to do the request on my mother's behalf, as
she was next of kin and I was not. The social security number helps,
but if you don't have that you can provide other information.
In addition, you will have a choice of whether you want just a
discharge record or complete records. I chose complete records and
they sent every piece of paper that had my uncle's name on it. Quite
an extensive record.
Another applicable point is that one of the records warehouses burned
down in the 1970s, so some of the records are missing and/or might not
exist any more. They definitely tell you that repeatedly as you go
through the process on the website.
They also told me that it might take up to six months to get the data
back, but they were actually very quick in getting it back to me. I
would recommend the process! They give you every record imaginable--
they gave results of my uncle's rifle tests and everything. The
results for WWII might not be as extensive as for Vietnam, though.
Good luck!
In addition, here was my search strategy:
Search terms:
"yangtze river patrol"
"navy sailor records"
+ personal knowledge of the VetRecs website
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