FM 55-55
Field Manual 55-55 Description Describes "the organization and operation of the railway-operating battalion upon a railway operated by the Military Railway Service. Its purpose is to assist military railway officers in the training and operation of their units and to guide command and staff officers charged with their employment." 57 p. : ill. ; 19 cm. United States. War Department. February 4, 1944.
715th Railway Operating Battalion - Charles Wesley Lewis
His granddaughter, Melissa writes ....
Charles Wesley Lewis was morn Jan 24, 1919 and passed Dec 6, 1986 Once home to West Virginia he began work in the coal mines eventually getting his Mine Foreman's Certificate in 1953. Was a member of the local Lions Club and an avid gardener.
He had bright blue eyes and a warm toothy smile, a wicked sense of humor and a great story teller, and he never met a stranger. Sadly he passed at only 67 from complications of emphysema and Black Lung Disease.
*Thanks Melissa for sharing these with us !
WWII Research Resources for Veterans Day
- WWII veterans or their next-of-kin can request the veteran's military service records from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis.
- Ancestry.com’s 1942 “Old Man’s” draft cards, Navy cruise books, missing in action reports and other WWII records. I was glad to be able mention Ancestry.com's Free Access Weekend for its military records in honor of Veterans Day.
- Footnote’s WWII missing air crew reports, submarine patrol reports, Pearl Harbor muster rolls and other WWII records.
- The National Archives' WWII enlistment records in its Access to Archival Databases, where you can search for an Army enlistee by name and get basic information about his service. These records also are part of Ancestry.com’s military collection, and they’re in Footnote’s free WWII Hero Pages.
- The Library of Congress Veterans Oral History Project, which has a database of veterans who’ve participated. (Our local Cincinnati Public Library takes part in the project and has its own database of local participants.)
- The Veterans Administration searchable Nationwide Gravesite Locator has burial information on veterans and, in some cases, their descendants, in VA cemeteries and state and local veterans cemeteries.
- The WWII National Memorial Registry, which combines four other databases: those buried in American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) overseas military cemeteries, those memorialized on ABMC Tablets of the Missing, those listed on official War and Navy Department Killed in Service rosters , and those who’ve been enrolled in the memorial’s Registry of Remembrances. (You also can search ABMC WWII databases here.)
