You Must Verify Military Service

Are you wasting time & money telling the wrong story?

You absolutely have to verify military service beyond one record. I can't stress this enough. I see so many people writing stories, or doing the bare minimum of what they can find online without actually getting military records. Or getting one record and assuming that's the whole story, like a Discharge Paper. You MUST verify service.

Why?

Military records have errors. People who created the records were human and made mistakes. Want an example? Raymond L. Habiak, committed suicide by jumping off a ship on his way back to the states from the PTO. His IDPF lists his unit as C Co 86th Eng Avn Bn. It's wrong. But if I had only used his IDPF to tell his story, I'd have it wrong.

His OMPF burned. Morning Reports show him in C Co 860th Eng Avn Bn. Then to the 80th General Hospital as a mental patient.

Plus on one page of his IDPF the clerk wrote the wrong serial number - instead of starting 366, he did 386.

So where did the 86th Eng Avn Bn come from that should have been 860th? The patient roster for the 80th General Hospital. I'm guessing the error began there and then was copied into records moving forward, including the IDPF. I almost didn't catch his ASN being wrong on one page since I wasn't specifically looking for that information.

When we focus on one question to answer, we often overlook everything else in the document. Then we can tell the wrong story, waste time and money chasing down records that don't apply to our veteran.

Are you ready to explore your family’s WWI or WWII history?

I am taking new clients and offer free phone consults. Email me at jennifer@ancestralsouls.com to schedule your consult today. Also visit the Ancestral Souls Wisdom School for upcoming classes and ancestral healing sessions on these topics and more.