I am writing to get a professional historical opinion on the role my grandfather may have played within his unit during World War II. He died three years before I was born, in 1972. He rarely spoke of his experiences. Unfortunately, all I know of his military record is the information listed on his discharge papers and some anecdotal information from my father and uncle. My grandfathers records were destroyed in the 1973 fire. His last unit upon separation was the 3105th Ordnance Base Armored Vehicle (BAVM)Company, an element of the 605th Ordnance Base Armored Maintenance (BAM)Battalion. However, he did not originate in this unit. He was a member of the 91st Division (I have no official record of this but his uniform did display the 91st infantry patch and my father and uncle remembers this to be the case). He was credited with service in the Rome-Arno and North Apennines campaigns and had a combat infantryman badge. During September 1944 he was wounded, I presume at the attack on the Gothic Line. The wound was severe, he lost a significant part of his bicep and it was replaced with goat muscle (or so the story goes). I assume he was transferred to the 3105 at this point. Most of this information is conjecture, but I believe it to be reasonable based on the information contained within his discharge papers and his uniform.

The intriguing part of his discharge records is that he is listed as a staff sergeant, having attained the rank after only 3-4 months in the army and he is also listed as an armorer-articifer 511. Additionally, his medals include a quartermaster pin. My question is, as a staff sergeant, was he likely to be a company armorer (whom I thought were typically T5 grade) or would he have been in the quartermaster company? Is the quartermaster pin an anomaly? Just something he picked up? I do not think I will ever know which regiment or company he served in while with the 91st Infantry but any historical perspective would be appreciated.

A further oddity, his discharge papers also credit him with service in the "Northern France" campaign. This seems to be a mistake.

Thanks,

PlantDoc