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 Author  Topic: Research Question
Dan C

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Dan C  Posted on: Apr 24, 2014 - 10:20am
One of my sisters lives pretty close to the College Park MD national archives. She went there on a preliminary fishing trip to get the lay of the land and see what records, if any, could be found about Dad's boat (PT-548, Ron 28). She did find some squadron action reports and war diaries and took a few photos to e-mail me. She wasn't really there to do a full-blown research effort, just to check it out, and see what could be found. Certainly, she doid not do an exhaustive research effort and only spent part of one day there. Surprisingly, the researchers said that there were no PT deck logs kept there. Not just for Dad's boat, but for any PTs. Does this sound right to any of you who have done research there, or maybe did my sister not make herself clear? Thanks for any research pointers you can give in re: PT deck logs. ---Dan

Dan C.

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Tracy White

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message   Posted on: Apr 24, 2014 - 11:24am
Hey Dan, I'm a researcher - I live on the opposite coast, but live near a regional branch that I hit regularly and make 1-2 trips a year to college park.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Navy didn't turn over PT boat logs, but there may be other places to look. Do you know what record groups and accessions she's hit so far? Have her talk to Nathaniel (Nate) Patch on floor 2 (textual records) as he's the best Navy records guy there... generally on the floor from 9-12 Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays.

Some low-hanging fruit:
5th floor (photographic) - Record Group 19-LCM, box 517. I went through that box and others nearby and that box has the range for PT-548.
2nd floor (Textual): Record Group 19 Bureau of Ships General Correspondence Files P1 through PYT has folders for PT-548 through 560 listed. Could be some photos, could be contract documents, could just be a route slip hinting at something tantalizing that was removed before it was turned over to the Archives.
There are other places to look, but I'll wait to hear back as to where she was, generally


Tracy White
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29navy

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of 29navy  Posted on: Apr 24, 2014 - 12:42pm
The logs are there (I live in Maryland have spent many a hours at the Archives going through them). Now, not ALL of them exist. Some boats and squadrons only have some, some have all, some have none.

Record Group 24.

Charlie

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  Jerry Gilmartin

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Jerry Gilmartin   Send Email To Jerry Gilmartin Posted on: Apr 24, 2014 - 7:26pm
Yes I agree with Charlie,
I went to College Park NARA2 and found numerous deck logs for numerous PT Boats. I think it was in the 2nd or 4th floor. I think your sister asked the wrong staff member! That is strange they told her they did not have any deck logs there. Good luck in your search.

PS you may want to look for PT Squadron "Action Reports" as well. The deck logs are kind of boring since they usually don't include anything that involves battle. Mostly a lot of "Changed course to 030 degrees" and "so and so reported aboard for duty" and "Wound the chronometer" and "Took on 100 gallons of freshwater and 1500 gallons of gasoline" But every now and then somebody writes something good.

Jerry Gilmartin
PT658 Crewman
Portland OR

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Tracy White

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message   Posted on: Apr 24, 2014 - 11:33pm
2nd floor - 4th is film, essentially. The reason I suggested Nate is that he's as good as they've got on Naval records. There is literally so much there that even people who have worked there for decades don't know it all, so they tend to specialize. Nate's the Navy record specialist. There's people who don't work military records at all and it's very easy for them to lead a researcher astray just because there's so much they don't know. I've been hitting the records at Seattle NARA for about a decade now (Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, 13th and 17th Naval districts) and there's still much I haven't seen and don't know about.

Tracy White
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29navy

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of 29navy  Posted on: Apr 25, 2014 - 4:11am
Right Jerry, 2nd floor.

Charlie

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Dan C

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Dan C  Posted on: Apr 25, 2014 - 10:49am
Thanks to all for the suggestions.

Jerry, I know what mean about the deck logs being boring. I saw samples on someone else's PT website. The one interesting thing, though, is the first few pages where they give the roster of whoever served on that boat, when they mustered on, when they mustered off. Dad was an original crew member of the 548 boat, so it would be good to at least get copies of those roster pages to see his name and info, as well as for all the other crew who served on that boat. I've got a bunch of his pictures from the Pacific that I sent copies of (on DVD) to PT Boats Inc. for their files a few years back. From notes he made on the back of some of the photos, I was able to coordinate some faces with the names. It would be nice to see the exact spelling of those crew members' names and their rates from the deck log. At some point, I'll make a stab at posting some of the better photos here in the Forum (I'm not too good at that type of stuff).

As to the research, it will be a protracted work in progress. I'd like to get down to College Park myself, but coming from NY with limited vacation days to use will complicate things. I'll see if I can get my sister to go back to that fellow mentioned with more specific date requests for the Solomons part of Dad's service versus the Phillipines part. That may help.

As an alternative, how do you guys feel about hiring a professioal researcher to do this. Has anyone had any good or bad experiences with this? Too costly perhaps? Anyone good to recommend?

Thanks again. ---Dan

Dan C.

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rickas

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of rickas   Send Email To rickas Posted on: Apr 27, 2014 - 8:54am
Quote:

Thanks to all for the suggestions.

From notes he made on the back of some of the photos, I was able to coordinate some faces with the names. It would be nice to see the exact spelling of those crew members' names and their rates from the deck log.
Thanks again. ---Dan
Dan C.



Dan - I found Squadron Muster Rolls (Squadron 5) for the period of my father-in-laws service (1943-44) at Ancestry.Com All members of the squadron were listed alphabetically. No information on particular boat assignment; but did include service number, rating, date assigned, and date of enlistment. Another form listed all squadron changes for a month IE - Assignments in and out, and promotions, and place of enlistment. Don't know if the same info is available for other squadrons but you can check it without leaving your computer.



Rick Schaefer
Splinter PT 63

TM3c John E Mirus
Solomon Islands
Dec 43 - Jan 45

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Tracy White

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message   Posted on: Apr 27, 2014 - 6:59pm
One thing you can do is go down for a Friday and Saturday. They don't pull new records on Saturdays, but you can find and pull them on Friday and the cart is still available on Saturday. That way you only have to burn one day of vacation time....

One can hire a researcher as you asked about, the trick is to go down the list and find the ones that mention log books - they're more likely to not have to waste time looking. If you're looking for other types of records, it could get more expensive depending on what you're doing. However, if you find someone who knows naval records they should be able to request a pull of what I posted earlier in about 5 minutes (generally about an hour's wait after the pull request, sometimes longer).

Tracy White
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29navy

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of 29navy  Posted on: Apr 28, 2014 - 5:50am
Dan, drop me an email at chsu@aol.com

Charlie

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