News Flash in from Thousand Oaks, Veteran Pensions

From: C J Sheldon <CJSheldonim@Gmail.com>

Date: January 14, 2013 11:42:27 AM PST

To: nyononda@rootsweb.com

Subject: Re: NYONONDA Digest, Vol 8, Issue 5

Dear  LISTERS  with  VETERAN RECORDS / "LOST" in 1970's  very

damaging fire in the ST.Louis V.A.Storage: There IS something  YOU

can do and here is MY exzmple how one WW-1 Daughter accomplished this

so  that her Father's  destroyed WW-1  Record  was REBUILT, AND IS

NOW ONCE AGAIN IN ITS PLACE IN THE WW-1 FILES.IN ST.LOUIS,MO. My hope

is  that what I learned in a reply from my QUERY to the V.A., may

help others who are seeking these  'lost' records'  because there IS

a way for YOU to help the V.A. REBUILD your WW-1 or other burned

records for a veteran in your family.

               SEVERAL YEARS AGO, I wrote to the   St . Louis

Vereran.s Administration in St.Louis only to find that my father's

WW-1record was indeed in the "burn-section" and was missing: Also

since they could not match a missing name to a missing  I.D. Number,

that avenue would not work. {Soldiers DID have Serial ID Numbers in

WW-1. }

               Then, the Archivist wrote something like this:: "WE

would like to REBUILD a missing / :burned record for ANY veteran. DO

YOU HAVE ANYTHING  about this veteran which would  help us to do

this? If so, kindly send us COPIES and we will start to do the

REBUILD and will notify you when we finish as best we can."

                Here is my  LIST of what I happened to LOCATE in my

'stuff' about my Dad , COPIES of which I sent to the ARCHIVIST in

St .LOUIS. My dad's name was LLoyd Addison SMITH,b.1895 in Cortland,

Cortland County,New York State.

                   1-Birth Certificate

                   2-WW-1 -Draft Registration-This came from the

COUNTY CLERK's office in Cortland.

                   3-HIS other POSSIBLE  Address when he entered

the Army in 1917 was in Wilkes-Barre,PA. where his family last lived

in a family-unit with  his  Mother . At that time-frame,his father

worked  and lived in Buffalo,NY. ,the family was in a state of

collapse  and,since my Dad's  Draft-card was in Cortland

County,NYS.,it seemed likely that he entered from NYS.: However, I

had no Cortland Address to include.So, putting in information from 2

places  seemed the better choice.

                   4-  Two  partial--  pieces of correspondence

between my father and my mother [ who were NOT yet married nor

engaged ]. Both pieces of mail  had return-addresses from Washington

State where he was stationed near Vancouver. ***These addresses

proved to be VERY IMPORTANT in the "REBUILD"  because -both were from

the same place  in Washington ,but  had somewhat differing addresses

from each other in the following way:

                     ............The first was a Postcard with a

Temporary Battalion Address---a U.S.Army  Engineering Battalion.

                     ............The second was an envelope -

[ minus any contents ] - but with another address which became a

more or less permanent  U.S. Army Engineering Battalion Address for

the duration of World War-1..

                    5-Lastly ,in my previous Genealogical Searches

to find out what  was  my  father's Job assignment out in  this Army

Unit  in Washington State in WW-1--I  had come across a small book on

a Thrift Shop bookshelf titled.---- "How We Won the WAR----

[ Cautionary Tale for Genealogists: Do NOT overlook information

because ""It is Too Old or Whoever Heard of This  Book", so forget

about it.Take a very objective look. ]  This book from 1919 or so was

in near-perfect condition: I thought at first it must have been about

WW-2. The AUTHOR's surname was LLOYD.

                       Because my Dad was in a TEMPORARY army

battalion--not a permanent Army Post -which  would have had a

permanent address--I had not been able to locate  information

elsewhere  about his Unit...... BUT, in this  book, there was a

chapter which told how  the then-infant -U.S.ARMY AIR FORCE HAD

indeed contributed to the winning of the War . There was a different

chapter about how each section of the armed services -ARMY ,US NAVY,

the US Marines, and the then-fledgeling U.S.ARMY AIR CORPS ALL

contributed to the final victory and end of the War.

                       My Father had told us that he helped to make

the WW-1 Airplanes and his Engineering Unit was responsible for

cutting the spruce-trees from  which the wooden- wings were made . My

Dad was  a Private but he was very proud of his service in WW-1. He

died at age 39-40 when I was 8 years old. So,I never had a chance as

an adult  to ask what his exact-job-slot was in this Battalion. and

never did find out.

                       BUT, in this little book, there was enough

information about this logging-operation and its importance to the

ARMY Air Force contribution .This,plus the stated-location  helped

pin-point  the Washington State Eng.Battalion Location.

                       5-LASTLY.,then, I copied this entire

chapter--with title page,publication date,etc.  and sent it along

with  1,2,3,and 4.

               Now--THE  RESULTS::

1-YES--I did hear back from he Archivist in maybe 5-6 weeks and that

with what I had sent, they COULD REBUILD my Dad's Folder. His Service

Number was  then located ,and All I sent went into his folder.

2-Then the Archivist issued a signed 'parchment' stating his time of

honorable service,etc. and sent this to me with a MOST unusual DATING

of 2000!.

3-As I had also  requested any WW-1  Service Medals for which my

Dad was eligible--I received a re-issue of the Medals -2- he would

have been awarded.... These came later-from Philadelphia.

               So-you see-there IS something YOU can do to help

REBUILD  YOUR VETERAN/S SERVICE FOLDER lost in the disastrous 1970's

Fire in the VA in St Louis.

This includes MANY years from certain dates to and end-date. I want

to say around 1912 to 1960.s . Maybe a knowledgeable person on this

can contribute more  exact  year-span of the destroyed Data-years ?

Remember -Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Marines,and Army AIR FORCE recordw

are all involved.

            . My husband, an Air Force Sr/ M/ SGT. of 22 years,

retired in 1963. and I am not even sure that his records  survived.

              This is an investment in the future of Veteran-

History. I  encourage ANY Veteran's survivors to  look around in your

papers ,write the V.A. to see if there is anything left, or nothing

left on YOUR veteran, and then get busy.  Genealogists are ideally

suited for this kind of Project-Search and they / you all have big

hearts for tracing unfinished business. And wouldn't this be a

marvelous gift to the memories of all these fine Veterans? While we

still have some effects  and / memories  and  data left .let's do this.

Feel free to contact me with Questions.

                        Charlotte J.[SMITH] SHELDON.........born in

Cortland Co.,NYS :A  proud USAF wife of many years including the

Berlin Airlift and living in Goose Bay, Labrador  :Years as  a Public-

School Teacher , and  now  living in SO. California  and teaching

Research Methods for Genealogy once a month or more,

                                        Happy Researching to ALL.

C.J.Sheldon

Dear SUSAN,  Thank you for thinking of your 'suggested outreach'. It seems a good way to reach many others with this information and I am not a proficient computer-person. Yours, Charlotte J.Sheldon in Thousand Oaks,CA.

I am sure many of us can utilize this information. Thank you CJ.  Susi P.