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Uniforms- Which units?

Discussion in 'Military Service Records & Genealogical Research' started by Germanius123, Sep 19, 2015.

  1. Germanius123

    Germanius123 New Member

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    Hello WWIIF members,

    I hope you can help me. Because I´m from Germany I don´t know much about US uniforms and units :)
    So, in search of distant relatives I found some pictures, shows these guys in uniform.

    My question is: Do you know the rank, unit and the medals?


    Picture 1: Good Conduct medal (?), Sergeant(?)
    Picture 2: Korean war(?)
    Picture 3: USMC(?)

    Sincerely,
    Niklas
     

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  2. Germanius123

    Germanius123 New Member

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    Here´s picture 3:
     

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  3. Takao

    Takao Ace

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  4. USMCPrice

    USMCPrice Idiot at Large

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    #3 is an enlisted Marine but I can't tell you much about him. He's not in 5th or 6th Marines because no fourragère, I can't see any rank insignia and he's wearing no ribbons just weapons qualifications badges.
     
  5. Germanius123

    Germanius123 New Member

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    Wow, thank you very much Price and Takao, this helps a lot!
    I just found out, that the Marine named Delmer Walter Miesner last rank was Staff Sergeant.

    On ancestry I looked up his name and found it in the Muster Rolls of the USMC, but sadly I don´t have an international Ancstry acc. Can anyone search his Unit in the Rolls? http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=marine_muster&so=2&pcat=39&gss=angs-c&new=1&rank=1&gsfn=Delmer+W&gsfn_x=1&gsln=Miesner&gsln_x=1&cpxt=1&cp=12&MSAV=0&uidh=i6m

    I´ld be very grateful if anyone can help.
    Regards
     
  6. TD-Tommy776

    TD-Tommy776 Man of Constant Sorrow

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    Not from Ancestry, but I found him listed on the 22 May 1943 Muster Roll for the USS Copahee:

    View attachment 23016

    There isn't much there, but it does give you his service number, his rank and location on that day. We have several Marine experts here. Perhaps one of them will be able to pull some more information from it.
     

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  7. Germanius123

    Germanius123 New Member

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    Hello Tommy,

    thank you very much too!
    Now I got his Muster Rolls from Ancestry. He was a (Radar-)Plotter in the

    HQSQ - MarineAirGroup 22 (January 1943)
    HQSQ - MarineAircraftGroup 24 (July- October 1943)
    HQSQ - MarineAirGroup 21 - 2nd MarineAirWing (January 1944)
    AirWarningSquad 18 - 1st MarineAirWing (April 1944)
    1stMarineAirWarningGroup - 9th MarineAirWing (October 1944- January 1945)

    Do the USMC experts have an idea which planes these Air Groups had?
    And what was the Mission of these? They´d to do reconnaissance and combat missions for the USMC?

    Best Regards from Germany,
    Niklas
     
  8. USMCPrice

    USMCPrice Idiot at Large

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    Well the May 22d, 1943, USS Copahee roster shows him being assigned to 4th Marine Corps ABDW, which means Airbase Defense Wing.

    In the Marine Corps you have MAW's (Marine Air Wings are equivilent to a ground side division) that contain a number of MAG's (Marine Air Groups) which are made up of a number of squadrons both flying and support. In WWII the Marine Corps had 5 MAW's, and 31 MAG's and 145 flying squadrons. So your first entry is

    Headquarters Squadron, MAG 22. MAG-22 was formed on Midway Island on 01MAR1942.

    Then he went to Headquarters Squadron MAG-21. Here's a snippet from MAG-21's WWII history; "By June 1943, MAG-21's squadrons were fighting large scale operations against Japanese installations in the northern Solomon Islands. The group moved to Efate in November 1943 and remained there until June 1944. Their final destination during the war was on Guam where they were based from August 1944 until the end of the war." I can't tell you precisely where he was but, more than likely he was operating at one of the airbases in the solomons chain supporting the flying squadrons.

    Air Warning Squadron 18 was a subordinate unit of the 1st Marine Air Wing and habitually paired with the 1st Marine Division. I can't find where Air Warning Squadron 18 was located in April 1944, but on 31 August 1944, it was located at Cherry Point, North Carolina. See this document: http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USMC/IV/USMC-IV-E.html
    page 777.

    I suspect he was returned home to help form a new AWS, plus the last entry was for 1st Marine Air Warning Group, 9th MAW. Per Gordon Rottman, 1st Air Warning Group was stood up at Cherry Point on 1 July 1943. It's mission was to train and organize 19 Air Warning Squadrons and serve as a replacement training unit for 1st MAW. It was re-assigned to 9th MAW starting in March 1944.

    The Air Groups (MAG) had a mixture of aircraft, and included fighter squadrons, scout-bomber squadrons, observation squadrons, night fighter squadrons, torpedo bomber squadrons, and transport squadrons. Depending upon the time frame F4F's, F4U's, SBD's, TBD's, TBF's, F2A's, F6F's, C-47's (R4D), B-25's (PBJ), and I'm sure a number of others I've neglected to mention.

    From a paper on the subject;

    ...these squadrons were created to fill a critical need for early-warning and intercept direction for both day and night fighters. They were an outgrowth of the ground controlled intercept (GCI) section of the Marine Night Fighter Squadron (VMF(N)), the first recorded use of radar in the Marine Corps. The original Marine Corps plan called for the activation of 32 Air Warning Squadrons for the Pacific theatre. However, in actual fact only about half that number were formed, and only 11 squadrons saw duty in the Pacific. These AWSs were equipped with various types of ground-to-ground and ground-to-air radios and a mixed suite of long, medium and short range radars: two SCR-270 long range search radars, one SCR-527 medium range control radar, and usually three SCR-6O2 early-warning short range radars. An interesting aside about the SCR-527 radar -- when the Marine Corps took delivery of its second SCR-527 from the General Electric Company in Syracuse, New York, the radar was considered obsolete by the Royal Air Force, which had already been using it.) The coordination of the various inputs received by the radar operators from these different radar sets, sometimes spaced more than 50 miles apart, was accomplished at the Air Defense Control Center (ADCC), located at the squadron headquarters. The various ADCCs would in turn forward tracking information to the overall area Air Defense Coordinator. The initial mission of the Air Warning Squadron was to "furnish early-warning information on approaching air and sea attack and to provide fighter direction against this attack." This mission was modified a short time later to read: Warn of approach of enemy aircraft, to control interceptions by friendly planes and to receive, evaluate, collate and disseminate all information on air and surface craft furnished by an Air Defense Control Center. Following a six month period of intensive training, the first of the Marine Air Warning Squadrons was ready for combat. On 20 February, 1944, Air Warning Squadron One(AWS-1), under the command of Captain W. D. Felders, arrived on Engebi Island in the Marshall Islands and on 1 March assumed responsibility for the control of all friendly aircraft in the area. Marine Air Warning Squadrons took part in all of the major campaigns throughout the remainder of the war in the Pacific. This effort reached its zenith during the battle for Okinawa, when five Air Warning Squadrons (AWSs 1, 6, 7, 8 and 11) were used to completely encompass the island within its air warning/ defensive umbrella.
     
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  9. Slipdigit

    Slipdigit Good Ol' Boy Staff Member WW2|ORG Editor

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