Author Topic: Looking For Some Information.... (Read 326 times)

MaddDog · « **on:** December 19, 2002, 04:49:54 PM »

Hey fellas this is gonna be alil hard but, My grandpa served in WW2 in the pacific on a ship, his ship was sunk by a jap sub and they were in life raft for awhile, his name is Earl C Holcomb and he has since died i was wondering if i could maybe find some information about a name of his ship, pics, info etc....

wulfie · « **Reply #1 on:** December 19, 2002, 09:55:16 PM »

You need to contact the USN and get his service records. Once you have those, you'll know what ship he was assigned to and odds are there's a 'reunion association' for the crew of that ship you can track down.

Mike/wulfie

MaddDog · « **Reply #2 on:** December 19, 2002, 10:41:07 PM »

thanks for the help never thought bout doin that!

Vermillion · « **Reply #3 on:** December 20, 2002, 07:20:03 AM »

Realize however that in the early 70's there was a fire at the military personel archives that destroyed something like 60% of all records from WWII and prior.

Unfortunately, that include my Grandfathers records when I went thru the process and requested copies of all his documents and medals. The only thing that they did have on him was his discharge papers which I already had from the County Court House records.

One strange thing we still can't figure out, is that the records show no record of my Grandfather receiving a purple heart (his other medals ARE on the discharge form). But he was shot during the liberation of the Phillipines, and lost half his stomach in the ensuing surgery.

It can be a frustrating process, going thru all the requests you will need to do. But for me it was very rewarding to find out more about my Grandfathers time in the military.

MaddDog · « **Reply #4 on:** December 20, 2002, 02:52:46 PM »

Thats whats id like to do, i think there should have been somethin on him or his ship they were sunk by jap sub and in the pacific for i think he told me 8 days.I wish i woulda asked him more about his time in ww2 think it kinda botherd him though. He lost afew buds in the war, he did tell me some cool kamikazi stories though

wulfie · « **Reply #5 on:** December 20, 2002, 05:05:59 PM »

8 days at sea (?) sounds alot like the U.S.S. Indianapolis. A very grim story. They were sunk and went down so fast that the comms guys didn't have a chance to get off more than one 'SOS' - which was missed.

And no one was checking up on them routinely as they were on the return leg of a 'ferry mission' for the Manhattan project (read: not attached to any TF).

Alot of guys escaped into the water and either died from exposure or shark attack. There's an entire book dedicated to the subject - your Grandfather's name is probably listed on the ship's muster somewhere if it was the Indianapolis.

The book is an amazing story - a high school kid researched the incident after hearing it mentioned in the movie 'Jaws'. The end result was the CO of the Indianapolis having his name cleared (he was origionally blamed for not conducting proper in-transit evasives vs. potential submarine attack) because the investigation involved with the book revealed that the reports of IJN subs in his area of transit were intentionally witheld from him. I can't remember the reason why.

Mike/wulfie

MaddDog · « **Reply #6 on:** December 20, 2002, 09:11:22 PM »

yea it wasnt that, i kno all about that, he told me the name some reason i think its the Cameal wasnt a big destroyer more like a support ship with afew guns on it. he manned the 20mm

MaddDog · « **Reply #7 on:** December 20, 2002, 09:12:45 PM »

yea it wasnt that, i kno all about that, he told me the name some reason i think its the Cameal might not have been though wasnt a big destroyer more like a support ship with afew guns on it. he manned the 20mm

Tarmac · « **Reply #8 on:** December 21, 2002, 01:36:08 AM »

I asked a friend about this and he suggested military.com. He's never actually used it, but he says it's got people searching features. He doesn't know if they'd go back to the 40's though. Maybe worth a shot.

The same friend repeated wulfie's suggestion of contacting the Navy and then going through veterans organizations or reunion groups.

MaddDog · « **Reply #9 on:** December 21, 2002, 09:56:14 PM »

rgr Thanks for all the help!:)