I have a rather interesting mystery I’d like to solve.
During WWII, my grandfather was assigned to a vessel that sank, killing most if not all of the crew. He survived only because he assumed the early morning air-raid sirens were a drill, and didn’t bother getting out of bed to report to duty. As the story goes, by the time he figured out that it wasn’t a drill, as bombs were exploding in the street in front of his window, he made his way to the Harbor to see his vessel on fire and sinking.
He was presumed dead and the local newspaper even ran a story “First Hometown Boy Killed in War”.
If you were me, how would you research this? I’d like to know the name of the vessel that sank. There are no living family members that remember, unfortunately, and I would like to preserve this story for our family history due to its unusual nature.
**edit- I know the name of the vessel he was re-assigned to for the duration of the War- would this help my research?
One place to look is at muster rolls of US Navy ships that were in the harbor at the time. Ancestry provides these for Pearl 1939-47 in digital form, but there is of course a paywall. However, chances are good that these records have also been entered as raw data (in fact it looks that way), so you may be able to search them. If the ship was stationed at Pearl, it should be among those lists.
Hello there! As your question is related to looking for identification/information regarding military personnel, our Guide on Military Identification 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!