So my Pop Pop was with the Army Air Force and Flew during WWII, and I don't recall

[LaydeeBug]

which type of plane. Is there a way i can find out?

As always, no one in my family remembers a *&&%$*)!! thing.

I know it was the Army Air Force.

[kdmorris]

1. You can get his service records from NARA

I did that with my grandfather and found what type of plane he was in and what he did (and all the medals he got for doing it).

[Sherman A1]

2. Here is a link

http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/

You could find out what unit he was with and research they aircraft types which it operated during the war.

Note that in 1973 the Records Center in St. Louis suffered a devastating fire and many records were lost, I believe that many were from the WWII era. I recall watching the glow from the fire when visiting my then girlfriend's house which was a mile or so away from there.

Best of Luck with your research.

[pipi_k]

3. Yep...I was very disappointed

to learn that many records had been destroyed in a fire.

A few years after my dad passed away in 2002 I decided to do the family history...tried writing for his military records to see exactly where he was stationed.

He had mentioned a few things about France and Belgium but never got specific. Too painful for him to talk about, I guess.

Anyway, I wanted to know if he was in the Battle of the Bulge as a tank driver.

No luck. Records gone.

[Sherman A1]

4. I would try

looking for some unit histories if possible & any type of daily muster information, which might still be around. You have narrowed it down already to likely be an Armored Unit (if he was a tank driver). Try Ancestry (you can probably use the local library) or Fold3 as places to start.

My Dad served in the Navy in the Pacific & while I did have his discharge papers, I was able to track down some of the muster information from his ship as well when Ancestry had a free weekend on those records. They sometimes do that around Memorial Day & Veteran's Day as a carrot to gain new subscribers (which you probably already know).

Also the St. Louis records center has been working on recovering those records as they can and has moved within the last year to a spiffy new facility. Went there last December for a presentation they had on WWII, (Pearl Harbor & the Interment Camps) which was nice. Might not hurt to give them another try on your Dad's records, they might have been able to cobble together something.

Good Luck!

[pipi_k]

6. Was on Ancestry.com

yesterday and I did find an enlistment record plus a VA death record for my dad, but there's not much info on them...i.e. nothing on exactly where he was stationed or his regiment or whatever they're called in the Army.

I have some other record for him around here and I'll have to check to see if there are clues on that...

[Sherman A1]

8. You are off to a good start there

Best of luck.

[LaydeeBug]

5. I feel more confused than when I started...I have no idea what an F3 is, or why I should look there

and don't know if he was stationed in St. Louis or not.

[Sherman A1]

7. The personnel record center is in St. Louis

a division of the National Archives, it is where his records were likely sent for storage, hence the likely place to start looking. If you can find the unit(s) to which he was assigned you can likely do a search on them and find what types of aircraft they operated (might be as easy as Wikipedia in that case).

Was he a bomber pilot (B17's, B24's, B25's, B26's and alike) a fighter pilot (P38's, P40's, P39's, P47's, P51's, etc), transport pilot, recon pilot or such.

Fold3 is an internet based records sight such as Ancestry and such which you can use to for research. Here is a link. http://www.fold3.com/