During WWII many sailors ended up being pulled from the sea after their previous home, the USS Goneforgood,has been sunk, taking with it all of the records and personal effects of all who embarked on that deployment.
So, Joe Blow ends up in Pearl or New York or wherever with no seabag, no pay history, and virtually nothing except whatever dungarees or khakis were donated to him by his rescuers.

Does Joe have to buy his new seabag or does the Navy "give" him one. What about his pay? Does he get paid from last land-based recorded date or just since last payday? Was there such a thing as "Survivors leave?" How long?

Thanks for accurate replies.

chuck petterson

Normally survivor leave of 30 days back in the US. A new sea bag was issued (I don't think any charge).

Back then, of course there were only paper records, other than the most basic info in D. C.
and often they were lost. From what I have read, at some point as soon as possible they interview the survivors, and attempt to recreate the records. They would have to take the persons word, verified as much as they could from others.

I was not in during WWII. My info is from reading many historical accounts from that era.

Of course you can also find a lot by GOOGLE as I'm sure you know.

If you are writing a novel, let us know when it is out.

Good luck!

It will take a bit of time, but go through the WW2 editions of All Hands that are available online. I read a couple of articles in those magazines that covered Navy procedures for just what you are looking for.

http://www.navy.mil/allhands.asp

My first div. LPO BM1 Cruz 1960 had a ship sunk out from under him during the battle of Okinawa,He was on one of the picket ships out from the main fleet,Had a star tattoed in the web of his hand and told me it was a sign that person had a ship sunk while aboard

ALL
Navy Regs circa 1948, prior to UCMJ, has articles relating to recovery of lost personal effects. Also, the Personnell recovered from any disaster were interviewed almost immediately, ascertaining serial numbers, ranks, and names. This was done by Hospitol folks, right on the recovery scene.
bt
During the early 50s we recovered lost airman, and occasionaly a lost or damaged vessel crew memebers. They had paper records aboard, duplicated in DC, but all the history of the event had to be recorded.
end

During WW2 and before there was a document called a "Service Record Book". This is different from the "Service Record" which came later. This Service Record Book was kept by the individual servicemember and contained a precis of significant chronological events in his career; transfers, promotions, leave taken, courses/quals completed. I do not know if an official service record as we know it now was maintained by the command or if the Service Record Book was the official document. Either way, if a survivor was able to save the book, a reconstruction was ready made.

Maybe some of the real old timers here can clear this up.

I saw a couple of the books during my career, but they were not in use officially during the early 50's. There was, among those who had carried/maintained these personal service record books, a problem in communications because they interchangeably referred to both documents as service records.

As far a reconstructed service records, I saw quite a few of them in the 50's. Mostly for sailors who had survived POW status and those who had ships shot out from under them. They were clearly marked as being reconstructed from interviews with the members and usually were initiated by the first command to which the individual was sent for treatment or reassignment.

My dad was a YN1 during WWII (stationed down in Rio of all places, but that's a sea story for another day). Back in his day, he said the sailors used to have seperate records for pay jackets, service records and medical records (just like when I was in in the 80's).

Anyway, down in Rio, there was a O-4 Lt. Commander that was a real PITA for the staff down there. The NCO's decided to make life easier for themselves and conceived a plan.

One day, the poor unsuspecting officer got immediate orders to report to the Washington Navy Yard on first available flight. Yep, a plane was ready and waiting for him (courtesy of the Army Air Corp) to hop him back to the states. Unfortunately for him, his service jacket, pay jack and med records were missing (one set was shipped out to Pearl, one set was shipped out to London and the 3rd set was sent to San Diego the week before). All he had was his paper orders in hand with orders to make haste.

Well, after getting ****ed off at everybody (nothing new there, my dad said), he went to get his shots done so he could travel back to the US with "part" of his medical jacket. When he got to the air base, he was told the Army Air Corps didn't recognize the immunizations given by the Navy, so he had to get shot up again (a little injury to his insult, so to speak).

Dad never knew what happened to this guy when he showed up in the Navy Yard with fake orders, no service jacket or pay jacket or any other records. But, all the NCO's were certain that it wasn't their problem anymore!!!

I saw a couple of reconstructed service records during my time. One from a guy coming from Viet Name and a couple when guys lost their service records during transfers.

Like teke's father, I have know a couple of pay records to get mailed around the world a few times for those there were "impolite".