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Tracing an Ancestor's Path through WWII

Yachinaka1

I realize this is probably a long-shot question, but I'm trying to trace the geographic path of an ancestor who served in the Army during WWII. He was, per family recollection, naturalized while serving in the military. The records we've found make clear that he was NOT a citizen when he enlisted in March of 1942, and the earliest he would have been eligible for naturalization would have been in May of 1942. There's some writings--though no proof--that his naturalization took place in 1942. I know that he could have been naturalized anywhere in there--and quite possibly wherever he might have been stationed before being shipped overseas in a federal or even state/county court, so his movements during this time period are the only way I have of narrowing an otherwise impossibly broad search. 

A request from NPRC for the full file came back with what we were told was the only mention of this ancestor in their records to survive to the fire: a pay stub that places him at Camp Davis, NC on April 21, 1943. It is a final pay roll for "6th Battery, A.A.S. (Artillery)", and on the page marked "Losses for March 1943" his name and serial number appear with the notation "Trfd to the 14th Battery". Family recollection is that he was in an anti-aircraft unit and served in Europe at some point during the war, though I have no idea when. 

I know next to nothing about military records or how to interpret them, but I had a few questions I'm hoping someone might be able answer:

1. If he enlisted in March of 1942, then he was still stateside almost a year later according to this pay stub. Is it a safe assumption that he likely was not deployed overseas in the interim? Or would it have been common to have been deployed to Europe, and then sent back to the US for further training within a year? 

2. If he was enlisted at Camp Grant in Illinois, did that mean he would have shipped out to basic training immediately, or did "enlistment" possibly mean he would have gone home for weeks/months before reporting to boot camp? 

3. Is there any way of trying to figure out where he might have come from-gone after Camp Davis in early 1943 based on transfer from a 6th Battery to the 14th Battery A.A.S.? I've tried google, but I can't make sense of the terminology or which batteries were dissolved and folded into others...

4. The NPRC said that in some cases the Veterans Affairs Department has military records in their custody, but offered few details. Has anyone had experience finding such records through the VA? 

I realize it's a tiny shred of information to go on, but would be grateful for anything someone can make of it, or insights into these basic military questions. 

Many Thanks! 

  • 0

    Hello,

    1. He likely was in training in 1942 into 1943 and did not leave the US. He would have deployed overseas after all of his training.

    2. Camp Grant was an induction center, so it is very possible he was given some leave before being sent to a reception center, or directly to Camp Davis.

    3. The units you mention, based on his pay record, could be training units at Camp Davis or units being trained there prior to deployment overseas. Typically, a battery has a letter designation, such as Battery A, Battery B, etc, so I’m a bit confused. It might help if you post photos of the pay record, and include his name and serial/service number. There were numerous units trained at Camp Davis,which by 1943 was one of, if not the largest of, the US Army’s AAA training centers.

    4. The VA may have some of his records, but I’m not sure of the process of requesting them. You could contact the VA and ask. You might also try the county where he resided in after the war, or the state. They sometimes have copies of discharge documents.

    Dan

  • 0 in reply to DanielMcKone

    Thanks so much for your reply! 

    I was similarly confused by the battery designation. Is it possible that training units had a numerical moniker, instead of a letter? I've attached the document I have right here: 

    The person I'm trying to trace is George M. Plews, at the bottom of the payroll listing. 

    We have some evidence that he was naturalized sometime in 1942, and based on the paperwork we've uncovered so far he would have first become eligible to be naturalized in May 1942, two months after his enlistment. This is why his movements become relevant; Chicago federal and local courts, where he lived before and after the war, haven't been able to come up with his naturalization paperwork, and it was very common for soldiers who had started the process to complete it in another court district if they were stationed there. So if there were any way to pin down a list of likely possibilities of where he might have been in the last seven months of 1942, that would give me a place to start.

  • 0 in reply to Yachinaka1

    Ok,

    I see now that your focus is on when and where he was naturalized,

    Here goes what I have found:

    I believe we are talking about George Montague Plews, born in Quebec in 1910.

    He is shown as a citizen of Canada on his 1940 dated US draft card. Same on his US Army enlistment record.

    At Camp Davis, he was assigned to 6th Battery, then the 14th Battery. These appear to be training units that were part of the AAA School Student Brigade, also referred to as the School Regiment.

    Based on the information below, it appears that George Plews, following training at Camp Davis, served as an officer in a US Army AAA unit(s) and that he deployed to the ETO (not sure why the marriage announcement shows G. E. Plews in title?):

    Therefore, even though he may have started as an enlisted man at Camp Davis, it is likely that he attended the Officer Candidate School (OCS) at Camp Davis, established in February 1942. It was initially a 12 week course, later 13 and, finally, 17 weeks by March 1943. He would have graduated as a 2nd Lt. The OCS classes were assigned to battalions of 3-4 batteries, each battery divided into platoons.

    Sources for the above Camp Davis information:

    The Camp Davis AAA Barrage Newspaper 7 Aug 1943 and Tyndall, Clifford, 2006. "Greetings from Camp Davis: The History of A WWII Army Base" Digital Edition (Kindle).

    I believe that in order for him to have been commissioned as an officer in the US Army, he would have had to have been a US Citizen. Therefore, he would have had to have been naturalized at some point in 1942 (as you have eluded to) or 1943.

    Now, I don't have any idea how the US Army handled that process for Soldiers already in the service. I would guess, however, that it was done through the nearest Federal Court to Camp Davis/Onslow County, NC. That would be the now US District Court: Eastern District of NC. Today, the nearest office of the court to Onslow County is in New Bern, NC. 

    https://www.nced.uscourts.gov/counties/Default.aspx

    Based on what I've read, the historical naturalization records from NC from those years should be available through the NARA Atlanta branch:

    www.archives.gov/atlanta

    I don't know if this helps or further complicates your search. Best of luck.

    Dan

  • 0 in reply to Yachinaka1

    Hello,

    Upon a further search,  found this information on naturalization for military members during WWII, if you have not seen it:

    https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/our-history/overview-of-agency-history/military-naturalization-during-wwii#:~:text=No%20member%20of%20the%20military,the%20required%20Oath%20of%20Allegiance.

    The above link does not answer where the documents from the naturalization process ended up being archived, but it sheds light on where naturalizations of military personnel may have been performed/finalized.

    Also, I searched for confirmation of my belief that commissioned officers during the war had to be citizens, but was unable to find a definitive answer. I still lean towards believing that to be the case.

    Dan

  • 0 in reply to DanielMcKone

    There's a bit more information to be gleaned.

    If you look at the payroll record, it's marked "Final Payroll," and has "Discharge Date 21 April 1943."

    Why is that? If I were a betting man, I would suspect that he received his commission on 22 April 1943. Because they discharge you from your enlisted status when you accept a commission. I can't think of any other reason why they would have discharged him otherwise.

    And, in the days before computers, they likely would have had to settle his pay account completely, as he would have been assigned a new serial number (O-XXXXXXX instead of 36323160) and I doubt they could have linked the two accounts together.

    So, given that, I would suspect that he would have probably been granted his citizenship sometime prior to the start of his officer training school. So back up 3-4 months from April 1943, and you're probably looking at December 1942 or January 1943.

    Assuming, of course, that you had to be a citizen to be an officer. You do now; I'm not sure that was the case in World War II. I'll have to do a little more research.

  • 0

     

    Thank you for posting your request on History Hub!

    In addition to the helpful information already provided by other History Hub community members, you may also be able to trace your relative’s military service through muster rolls and rosters. We located the Muster Rolls and Rosters, 11/1/1912 - 12/31/1943 and Morning Reports, ca. 1912 - 1946 for Army units that may include rosters and morning reports of the units he served in. Some of these records have been digitized and may be viewed online using the National Archives Catalog links provided. For more information about these records, please contact the National Archives at St. Louis (RRPO) at stl.archives@nara.gov. Please note that rosters for units serving in World War II from 1944-1946 were destroyed in accordance with Army disposition authorities. For more information, please see Access to Morning Reports and Unit Rosters | National Archives.

    Next, naturalization was generally a two-step process* that took a minimum of five years. After residing in the United States for two years, an alien could file a "declaration of intention" ("first papers") to become a citizen. After three additional years, the alien could "petition for naturalization" (”second papers”). After the petition was granted, a certificate of citizenship was issued to the alien. These two steps did not have to take place in the same court.  [*Exceptions can include cases of derivative citizenship, processes for minor aliens 1824-1906, and special consideration for veterans.]

    If a naturalization took place in a Federal court, naturalization indexes, declarations of intention (with any accompanying certificates of arrival), and petitions for naturalization will usually be in the National Archives facility serving the state in which the Federal court is located. For example, if the naturalization took place in North Carolina, you should contact The National Archives at Atlanta to request a search of the records in their custody. No central index exists. To ensure a successful request with the National Archives, your email should include: the name of petitioner (including known variants); date of birth; approximate date of entry to the US; approximate date of naturalization; where the individual was residing at the time of naturalization (city/county/state); and country of origin.

    We invite you to continue the conversation with community members on History Hub, but should you have follow up questions for the staff at Archives II, please email us at archives2reference@nara.gov so that we can assist you further. 

    We hope this is helpful for your research! 

    Sincerely,

    Textual Reference Archives II Branch (RR2RR)

    [RR2RR 24-63027-RS]

  • 0 in reply to Donald Hall

    That's an interesting observation and hypothesis. I assumed that the discharge from this unit was just a transfer for needed manpower or skills in some other unit, but this is plausible, and that timeline makes sense for naturalization. I haven't seen an O- serial number in any other research, but then, this pay stub is really the only remaining record from NPRC. 

    Do you know if Camp Davis was where OCS took place? It makes me think I should check some the county courts around North Carolina, since I know that they were sometimes pressed into service for naturalizing soldiers alongside federal magistrates. 

  • 0 in reply to DanielMcKone

    Hi Dan, Thank you SO much for your thoughtfulness and work on this inquiry. Most of what you found were documents I'd unearthed already, but you put them into context in a way that I couldn't have done! 

    I had previously consulted the NARA Atlanta Branch with the same thought, knowing that he had been at Camp Davis for an extended period--in fact, I've consulted NARA branches for every place that AAA officers were trained. None of them have come up with any naturalization records at all. I think my next step is see if there's anything that might have been missed, or if there are any collections that are not indexed and thus not searchable that I could go through on my own. 

    The other possibility is County Courts. Naturalization was mostly federal by that point, but in some jurisdictions, county courts were pressed into service of the purpose of naturalizing soldiers, so I may query the neighboring counties as well. It would probably be worth checking with the court clerk directly, too. 

  • 0 in reply to Yachinaka1

    The AAA OCS operated at Camp Davis from Feb 1942 until May 1944. That’s likely where he would have attended OCS to become an AAA officer. 

    I’m sorry to hear NARA Atlanta couldn’t help.

    I’m wondering if, because these military naturalizations were (maybe) done en mass/bulk at times, that they might be stored/labelled by dates vs individuals, or in some atypical manner. Perhaps, there is a specialist out there who would be able to assist you? 

    Dan

  • 0 in reply to Donald Hall

    His Obituary printed in the The Herald, Crystal Lake, Illinois · Monday, May 04, 1981 states  " A U.S. Army Captain in World War II with anti-aircraft artillery in Europe, hew was award five bronze stars and decorated soldiers medal.  He also received the Silver star".

    The five "bronze stars" are likely Bronze Service Stars for the European Campaign medal, not the actual Bronze Star medal.

    An engagement announcement in the Courier-Post,  Camden, New Jersey · Friday, December 24, 1943, says he's a Lieutenant stationed at Camp Pickett, VA

    The Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois · Sunday, March 04, 1945  says he was awarded the Soldier's Medal