Hi, Im trying to find the war records of a relative who probably served during WW2. When he was alive he said that he had served but never talked about it properly. He did mention a few things off handedly over the years which were that he was recruited through Melbourne University, he learned japanese, he spent some time on a US Navy ship but he never saw combat.. We think he probably worked in signals intelligence, but we cant find his war record.
We've never been able to find out conclusively but we highly suspect he worked in the intelligence community post war through to the late 60s. So it might be that his personnel file isnt in the normal records.
We dont get anything on the naa.gov name search. Any ideas how else I could search to find more info? We're not expecting to find his personnel file but would like to atleast find his name on a list somewhere.
Hello there! As your question is related to looking for identification/information regarding military personnel, our Guide on Military Identification's Australia section may be of use to you. It provides a number of different resources, including how to request service records from a number of national agencies around the world, as well as graphical aids to assist in deciphering rank, unit, and other forms of badges or insignia. While the users here may still be able to lend you more assistance, hopefully this will provide a good place to start!
Additionally, you might ask the good people in /r/genealogy for their tips.
As a starting point you may want to check the Department of Veterans Affairs nominal roll for those military personnel who served in WW2. Assuming he served in Australian uniform he should show up there. Note that his assumed period of service might also cover Korea.