Deciphering Discharge Report

First, thank all of you for helping me with my Guatemala questions! I just received an "Enlisted Record and Report of Separation - Honorable Discharge" from NARA for my father and I have several questions about the content that I hope some here an help me with.

Question #1: The "Military Occupational Specialty and No." says "Rifleman 745". The "Military Qualification and Date" is fuzzy but appears to say "BAR (exp)". Does this mean my father carried the B.A.R. or does it mean something else?

Question #2. Under "Battles and Campaigns" it says "None". I have already established that my father was with the 259th Infantry and was deployed along with the rest of the 65th Infantry to Le Harve, France in January 945 and thence to the SAAR. Why would this say "None"? Error?

Question #3: In the section "Service outside Continental U.S. and Return" it shows deployment to "W. Indies" from December 26th 1941 to March 1944. Could "W. Indies" mean Guatemala? If not, that leaves questions as to what he was doing in the W. Indies during war.

Question #4. I had always been told that he was wounded in action in the SAAR valley a few days before the war ended and that he spent 6 months in the hospital and had to learn to walk again. This paper shows he was returned to the states on 11 May 1945 and was discharged from a convalscent hospital at Camp Atterbury, Indiana on 27 Sep 45, but in the section "Wounds received in action" it says "None". I have never found any indication that he was awarded a Purple Heart and the only Decorations and Citations listed are XXXX (unreadable) Ribbon, American Theater Ribbon and "American Defense Ribbon". Would there be a reason that this indicates not wounded in action and yet he spent so much time in the hospital?

Question #5: The "Reason and Authority for Separation" says "Certificate of Disability for Discharge AR 615-361..." Does not number mean anything?

Thank you in advance for your help in unravelling these mysteries!

 

Yes, it means he was qualified to operate and carry the BAR

My guess would be he was discharged before his unit received the official battle/campaign credits.

In any given war, the vast majority of injuries are incurred in non-combat situations. This also holds true for World War 2. It could be that he sustained an injury that was not combat-related.

Have a look at this link: http://history.amedd.army.mil/booksdocs/wwii/NeuropsychiatryinWWIIVolI/chapter16.htm -- "Under the provisions of section II, AR 615-360, and later, AR 615-361, issued on 4 November 1944, the neuropsychiatrist was frequently appointed as a member of the board of medical officers generally referred to as the "CDD (certificate of disability for discharge) Board." Even more frequently, however, he presented neuropsychiatric cases before this board which determined whether disposition would be accomplished by medical discharge. A major involvement of the psychiatrist with this board was the determination of the line of duty relative to disposition and commitment of psychotic patients. Those cases of psychosis whose line-of­-duty status was determined to be "yes" after prior presentation before the "600-500 Board" (p. 476) offered little difficulty in disposition except for a reasonable delay when transfer to a Veterans' Administration facility was necessary. Patients requiring continued psychiatric hospital care, whose illness was not considered to be incurred in line of duty, presented considerable difficulty in disposition, especially early in the war."

So maybe he suffered some sort of injury (clearly, he required medical attention) or perhaps a psychological condition.

 

I wonder if, instead of a wound, he actually suffered "battle fatigue" - what we now know as PTSD. Since "battle fatigue" or "shell shock" was considered by many to be a form or cowardice or embarrassment before it was fully understood, that could account for a cover story about the wound. From what I knew of my father later in his life - alcoholism, etc, it certainly seems plausible.

 

My guess is that he was involved in an accident of some sort. There is a mention in Band of Brothers about Popeyes Wynn being in an accident and his being the last of the company to return to the US after the war ended. Another example is that of General Patton dying as a result of injuries due to a traffic collision near the end of the war or right after.
So it does happen.

 

Based on what you have provided so far, I don't think that this is an unreasonable guess, but as Slipdigit suggested, if you can provide a picture of the document, it might lead to more feedback.

 

I'm not so sure about that -- "AR 615-361" above seems to indicate he was reviewed and approved for discharge based on a psychological condition.

 

I am attaching a scan of the document made using my cell phone. I will see if I can get a better scan this evening when I get home, although the document is pretty poor to begin with.

 

I see the attachment did not go through...

 

Sometimes if you scan it into a photo editing program you can clean it up a bit playing with the contrast and such. There's a thread on how to post pictures here at:
http://www.ww2f.com/topic/26899-inserting-pictures-in-a-post/

 

Well, the file was too large. I will try again later when I have better scanning tools.

 

If the file is too large you might be better off using a photo editing tool to cut it in two. That way you don't loose any resolution. There are also ways of posting it on line where it will be accessable to others (some sites limit access to those you specifically allow others are more open). I'm far from an expert on this but some here are pretty well versed in it.

 

Well back then if there was any cognitive delay due to a head wound, what we would call a "traumatic brain injury" today it would have fallen in that category as well.

 

Not necessarily. After the start of the war, the military medical community was becoming quite aware of what we call TBIs. The British even used "post-concussion syndrome" (this replaced the term shell-shock) to describe the patient from the war who was in extremely close proximity to a detonation, suffered long-term or late-developing neurological symptoms/disorders as a result, but otherwise showed no visible wound to the head. I don't know that this was the consistent contemporary approach in the war, but I think they at least knew of the distinction between neurological and psychological injuries, and certainly by the end of the war.

 

You do realize that I am agreeing with you...?

 

I do now!

 

I'll have the scan of the discharge report up later tonight. Been very busy here at work. Thank you everyone for your input.

 

Here is the scanned document