WWII HOSPITAL SHIPS

Question

I was wondering if there are records of hospital ships leaving the South Pacific and bringing the sick and wounded back to the states. My uncle served in Co C of the 57th Engineers that served in Guadalcanal from November 1942 until February 1943. Once back in the Fiji's in May 1943 he contracted malaria and was sent to the 142nd General Hospital in Suva, Fiji before ending up in the Kennedy General Hospital in Tennessee before being honorably discharged. 
 Thank you.

Textual Reference Branch, Archives II · Answer

drewman64 
 Thank you for posting your question on History Hub! 
 
 If your uncle was on a hospital ship of the Army Transport Service please note that, according to our records, in 1951 the Department of the Army destroyed all manifests, logs of vessels, and troop movement files of United States Army transports for World War II and most of the passenger lists. However, it appears there are some records available concerning this type of U.S. Army watercraft in the custody of the U.S. Army Transportation Museum, ATTN: Research Library, 300 Washington Boulevard, Besson Hall, Fort Eustis, VA 23604-5260. The telephone number is (757) 878-1115. 
 
 We did perform a search of our records and located a series titled Records of Historical Unit Medical Detachments (HUMEDS), 1940 - 1955 in the Records of the Office of the Surgeon General (Army) (Record Group 112) that includes records of the 142nd General Hospital in boxes 37 and 520. We also located the World War II Operations Reports, 1940-1948 in the Records of the Adjutant General's Office, 1917 - 1985 (Record Group 407) that includes historical records of the 142nd General Hospital in boxes 17294-17295. For more information about these non-digitized records, please contact the National Archives at College Park - Textual Reference (RDT2) via email at archives2reference@nara.gov . 
 
 We would also suggest that you request a copy of your uncle&rsquo;s Official Military Personnel File (OMPF) . OMPFs and individual medical reports for enlisted men of the U.S. Army who were separated from the service after October 1912 and before 1960 are in the custody of NARA's National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis. In many cases where personnel records were destroyed in the 1973 fire , proof of service can be provided from other records such as morning reports, payrolls, and military orders, and a certificate of military service will be issued. Please complete a GSA Standard Form 180 and mail it to NARA's National Personnel Records Center, (Military Personnel Records), 1 Archives Drive, St. Louis, MO 63138-1002. Veterans and next of kin of deceased veterans also may use eVetRecs to request records. See eVetRecs Help for instructions. If there is any information requested by the form that you do not know, you may omit it or provide estimates (such as for dates), but the more information you provide, the easier it will be to locate the correct file if it survived the fire. For more information see Official Military Personnel Files (OMPF), Archival Records Requests . 
 
 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 assists you with your research! 
 
 Sincerely, 
 Textual Reference Archives II Branch (RR2RR) 
 [RR2RR 24-70239-VVT]