deciphering a NARA record.

[sebfrench76]

Ola Amigos!

Here in France ,we're addicts of the Nara records,but very fast,we're stopped cause we don't know how to use it perfectly,for example,to trace the veteran's unities,his theater of operation,etc..A little bit like you have trouble with the french menu in Normandie's restaurants...("andouille is really made with guts??")
Do you know a tutorial to use fully these records,or may be can you give me some tips?
Thank you from the frog!

[sebfrench76]

My American friends,please help me!!
Like in 44,i have cider and Calvados for ya!

[Eric Zentner]

I need some Calvados from my favorite Frog! Hi Sebastian.. Who are you looking for from the National Archives and Records Administration? You can send it Pm.

Eric

[AmericanKraut]

As far as I know these records are very vague (Contain no detailed information). But Ill show you what they do give you which you might already know... I just want the cider.

The only information about the person that is sometimes traceable on the NARA dirrectly is their Branch of service (Army, Air Corp. etc)

Here is a picture sorry for bad quality

The Arrow is pointing at the BRANCH CODE column and in this particular NARA it lists Air Corps.

The Most useful information in tracing a person from a NARA is their Name, Serial Number, Place of Enlistment, and Residence (where they lived)

If you look up where the person enlisted and search (Google) the base that they enlisted in you might find that that particular base was used by one specific unit.
Example (Camp Bowie in Brownwood Texas was used by the 808 tank destroyer battalion)
The downside of this is that just because a soldier enlisted at a base does not mean that they trained there and they could have been transferred to anywhere.

But if you look up all the information combined (Name, Serial number, residence, and place of enlistment) you might get lucky and find information on a different site more organized than one made by the government...

[sebfrench76]

My friendz,thank you so much!
We are all looking after the histories around the dogtags we're discovering in the soil of Normandy...