Finding Obscure Military Records

[Jayg]

I was rattling through some old baxes and found some letters Mom had saved from when I was in service.

In one I wrote of an incident I had almost come to consider a figment of my imagination.

While in Germany in 1978, we had a wheeled vehaicle park seperated by a lane from the track park. Both parks were against the back wall of the Kaserne with a hill rising above the wall outside.

i was on guard and heard what I took to be a shot. Then there was a second. The guard from the other park was a Nam retread and allowed a shot had struck near him.

We had a heck of a time getting anybody to come out because everybody supposedly on duty were asleep. Finally a LT came out and questioned us. I guess somebody believed us because they started having us carry our M16s on guard. (No ammo though, of course.)

The point of all this is, where do I find records of such events. I assume they would have made some kind of record besides all those battalion duty logs. Surely they condensed all those into some sort of specific incident report structure. How much effort went into deciding to have guards take out their weapons instead of billies? Enough to make the initial event notable?

[Testvet]

if there are any notes of it they would be in your battalions Staff Duty Log if it happened at night I know they kept Staff Duty Logs at Compnay levels, and Battalion and Brigade Levels if you were pulling Battalion guard duty then you need to find where the Army has stored the documentation from your unit in Germany most units from the 70s have been reassgined to stateside bases or mothballed and colors stored away but the records have to be somewhere, unless you guard duty was from your company and you reported the incident to your company then you might need the Charge of Quarters (CQ) records do you remember what month this happened in 1978 to read 365 days worth will drive you nuts plus the people that have to pull them.

Edited May 28, 2008 by Testvet

[Stretch]

Call a buddy and ask him if he has any evidence of the event. If he does have evidence, ask him to send a copy and a letter swearing to its authenticity.

[Jayg]

if there are any notes of it they would be in your battalions Staff Duty Log if it happened at night I know they kept Staff Duty Logs at Compnay levels, and Battalion and Brigade Levels if you were pulling Battalion guard duty then you need to find where the Army has stored the documentation from your unit in Germany most units from the 70s have been reassgined to stateside bases or mothballed and colors stored away but the records have to be somewhere, unless you guard duty was from your company and you reported the incident to your company then you might need the Charge of Quarters (CQ) records do you remember what month this happened in 1978 to read 365 days worth will drive you nuts plus the people that have to pull them.

Yes, it was Bttn guard duty and it was in the 3rd Infantry div. I would guess the 1/10th FA is still active. But where would I find those records? Surely not still with the division? Nara? But where within?

The letter is dated so the time window can be narrowed fine.

As for the other guard, I only remember his last name (fortunate just for that!) and haven't seen him since likely '79/80.

[Berta]

It could be in the unit DJs-Daily Staff Jpurnals but these are voluminous records or within the SITREPs-

Testvet is right- this could involve an excrutiating search.

The unit might have a web site-

I dont know how this search could help you as far as any VA claim.