February Trip to National Archives

John Zimmerlee and I visited the National Archives (NARA) in February. Unfortunately, documents described by archivist Rich Boylan as the ‘juiciest stuff’ were not brought out until we were about ready to pack up and leave on our last day at NARA. We’ll review those documents on another visit. We did find a few interesting items this time, though, some of which will be mentioned below, and some elsewhere in this newsletter.

If you have questions about any of this, please contact either me or John for more information.

1): Boxes that contain lists of reported POWs (some confirmed, some unconfirmed), and some reports of death. There are many folders in these boxes and many documents in each folder. It takes some time to go through them, but families or case researchers might want to review this information if you have not seen it already.

Ref: Record Group 497 (Box numbers noted are those written on the lid of the box)

Box 7: Reports of Death;

Box 10: Transcripts of Radio Peking Propaganda Broadcasts, using American POWs (names and personal information are included);

Box 15: Lists of POWs (confirmed and unconfirmed, with reasons for inclusion on the lists); List of identified atrocity cases; various lists and documents worth review;

Box 19: Reports of MIA, rosters, and related discussions about captured status, sightings, etc.

2) A Department of the Army pamphlet titled Personnel: Casualty Reporting During Combat. The pamphlet contains information about practices for reporting and notifying of casualties. It also contains codes used, some of which might appear on documents families have in their files. Without decoding information, it can be hard to know just what a document says.

Codes contained in the pamphlet are:

Killed in Action: ETHER

Died as a result of wounds received in action: HUMOR or HINGE (both are given).

Died as a result of injuries received in action: SORRY

Missing in Action: GRAVY

Captured by opposing forces: URBAN

Interned by neutral power: BLAND

Seriously wounded in action: INGOT

Seriously injured in action: LEAST

Slightly wounded in action (hospitalized): FRIAR

Slightly wounded in action (not hospitalized): HUSKY

Slightly injured in action (hospitalized): HEAVY

Slightly injured in action (not hospitalized): CATCH

Seriously ill (gas casualty): POKEY

Seriously ill (radioactivity): BLAST

The following additional codes give more detail on some matters:

Description of battle casualty:

Gunshot wound: ORGAN

Shell fragment wound: DRAFT

Flesh wound: STUMP

Bomb explosion: CLOUD

Other: LARGE

Non-battle casualty:

Dead: CROWN

Seriously ill: LOYAL

Missing: PUNCH

Line of duty status:

In line of duty, not due to misconduct, investigation not required: FINAL

Line of duty and misconduct status to be determined by investigation: GREAT

Progress, battle or non-battle casualty:

Making normal improvement: AGATE

Convalescing: BIBLE

Not recovering satisfactorily: CRIMP

Sinking rapidly: DIZZY

Removed from seriously ill: WRITE

Transferred to another hospital: TALON

Released from hospital: ERECT

Returned to military control (from missing, captured, or interned status): BRICK or RAMP (both are given).

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