Tape Cutting

So just an update with regards to my quest in finding out all the details to my Uncle Jack’s war record. With the government open, it was back to the two places who pretty much held the Holy Grail. Or at least I thought. First off the National Archives (NARA). I knew going in that this could be hit and miss due to the massive fire in 1973 at the National Personnel Records Center of the Archives. Close to 18 million Official Military Personnel Records were lost.

So I sent in my wonderfully worded Chat GPT email and kept my fingers crossed. This time I quickly received an answer. The fires did destroy Jack’s file but NARA still had a nugget for me.

These are my uncle’s separation papers. The nugget is right in the middle. It was verification of several items. Number one being those 81 missions. The kicker to that though, is they were all combat missions. No wonder he had a DFC and the team a PUC. The other great bit of info is I narrowed the field to at least the 10th Air Force. So I was ecstatic to say the least. But my giddiness didn’t last long. That frustrating story hopefully has its own surprising result. Back to crossing fingers.