Where is the crew list of the USS Abner Read (DD-526) for November 1, 1944?

Christopher,

In addition to Jason’s detailed response, you may wish to visit another part of the Naval History and Heritage Command’s digital holdings.  NHHC has digitized their collection of the Bureau of Ship’s War Damage Reports, including No. 51, which tells the story of Abner Read’s final battle on 1 November 1944.  You can find that account here:

https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/w/war-damage-reports/destroy…

Abner Read’s story begins on page 95.  In this account you will have a better understanding of what your uncle experienced on that day.

I hope you find this information useful.

Good luck with your research!

A. J.

Alex, flaming outstanding the work and time you must have put in.

Will dig through the information you have provided and hopefully find what am looking for.

Much thanks, Chris

Jason, excuse me for call you Aiex.  A bad brain bubble

Sorry, thanks again, Chris

Alex, thank you for your valuable input.  I look forward to using the info. to further my search.

Again, with gratitude, Chris

Dear Christopher Barrett,

Thank you for posting your request on History Hub!

We searched the National Archives Catalog and located the following online records relating to the USS Abner Read (DD-526):

• World War II War Diaries, Other Operational Records and Histories, ca. 1/1/1942 - ca. 6/1/1946, which includes 37 digitized files relating to the USS Abner Read, to include USS ABNER READ - War History, ABNER READ - Rep of Act Against Jap Aircraft & Resultant Loss of the USS ABNER READ in Leyte Gulf, Philippines on 11/1/44, USS ABNER READ - War Diary, 10/1/44 to 11/1/44, and CINCPAC - War Diary, 11/1-30/44 which all deal directly with the sinking of the USS Abner Read.
• Logbooks of U.S. Navy Ships and Stations, 1941 - 1983, which includes deck logs of the USS Abner Read for 1943 and 1944. Please note that the deck logs include rosters of officers assigned to the ship for a given month, which are tracked by muster rolls. They do not include enlisted personnel. Also, we do not have a deck log for November 1, 1944, as that was likely lost with the ship.

In regards to information about personnel aboard the USS Abner Read at the time of its sinking, we located the following records, which are not available online:

• Muster Rolls of U.S. Navy Ships, Stations, and Other Naval Activities, 1/1/1939 - 1/1/1949, which according to our finding aids, includes muster rolls of the Abner Read (DD-526) for 2/5/1943 through 12/1/1944.
• World War II Casualty Reports, 1939 - 1945, which includes a file for the Abner Read
• Casualty Information Reports, 1941 - 1960, which may include a file for the Abner Read. These files sometimes include lists of wounded and lists of survivors available for reassignment in addition to lists of dead.

Additionally, we located the following records which may give general information concerning the sinking of the ship:

• War Damage Reports and Related Records, ca. 1941 - 1947, which includes a file for the Abner Read (DD-526) in box 1. As of when we are posting it, the container list incorrectly lists the ship as “Abner Grant”. We have already submitted a correction.
• Secret and Top Secret General Administrative Files, 2/1/1941 - 12/31/1944 of the Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet, which includes 1944: A16-3 (Detached Enclosure) U.S.S. Abner Read (DD-526) - Battle Damage
• World War II Command Files, which includes the file Individual Ships, Abner Read
• Gunnery Reports, 1942 - 1945, which includes the file U.S.S Abner Read DD-526
• World War II Action and Operational Reports, 12/7/1941 - 1946, which may include reports concerning the USS Abner Read.

For more information about the records listed above, please contact the National Archives at College Park - Textual Reference (RDT2) via email at archives2reference@nara.gov.

Next, we located General Photographic Files, 1943 - 1968 which includes the photograph USS Abner Read Burning After Being Hit By a Kamikaze, off Leyte.  This photograph is not available online.  To request access to this photograph and a search for additional photographs, please contact the National Archives at College Park - Still Picture (RDSS) branch via email at stillpix@nara.gov.

We also located Navy and Marine Corps Casualty Records, 1898 - 1970 and located the Navy and Marine Corps Casualty Records , 1940 - 1989 in the Records of the Bureau of Naval Personnel (Record Group 24) that may include a file for your uncle if he died while in service. For more information about these records, please contact the National Archives at St. Louis (RL-SL) via email at stl.archives@nara.gov.

We suggest that you request a copy of his Official Military Personnel File (OMPF). OMPFs and medical records of sailors of the U.S. Navy who served during World War II and who were separated from the service before 1960 are located at NARA's National Personnel Records Center (NPRC), (Military Personnel Records), 1 Archives Drive, St. Louis, MO  63138-1002.  To request these records, please mail a completed GSA Standard Form 180 to NPRC.  In Section 1, Item 1, where it asks which items you are requesting, please check “Other” and specify that you want the entire file. 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.

Please be aware that NPRC is prioritizing the requests for separation documents needed by veterans and their dependents to prove eligibility for a variety of benefits. NPRC expects to eliminate this portion of the backlog by fall 2022, and restore their pre-pandemic response times of under ten days for these requests later this fall. It will take considerably longer to eliminate the backlog on other types of requests, such as genealogical requests for complete copies of records. For more information, please refer to Onsite Operations at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis.

Finally, we searched online and located the following webpages:

• https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/a/abner-read.html
• http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/526.htm
• https://www.history.navy.mil/news-and-events/news/2018/Abner-Read-NOAA.html
• https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:USS_Abner_Read_(DD_526)_(ship,_1943)

We hope this is helpful. Best of luck with your family research!