"A research question" Topic

Not quite sure where to find this: my Dad landed on Okinawa off an LST back in April of 1945. He was part of the 15th Marines, 6th Marine Division. Where do I go to find which LST he rolled off of?

the obvious place to start is to ask him.
if he's no longer available to ask, (my condolences are offered then)
you might check the details of his service records though I doubt such information is actually kept there.
goos luck.
R.

Such info should be found in Ship's manefests and embarkation orders for the operation. Finding it in the orders might be the easier of the two to discover. A cordial letter or email to the USMC historian should get you started.

Good luck in your research!

best

Do you have your Dad's service records? It is amazing what gets saved – I have my great-grandfather's from the Civil War, and there is a month-by-month record of everything he did – don't know about the USMC, but probably worth a shot – I got it by filling out a form to the National Archives and paying $5 USD

For his service record you can request that online at eVetRec.com or fill out an SF180 and submit it to the National Records Center in St Louis.

With the size of the invasion fleet at Okinawa, it might take you a while to track down exactly which ship as the regiment was probably spread over 3 to 6 (or more) LSTs. You'd have to know which company and maybe even which platoon, though they tried to keep each unit together.

You could try the USMC Historical Center at Quantico (it's no longer at the Washington Navy Yard) or the Naval Historical Branch at the WNY. USMC would probably be the better place to start.

Thanks for the help, guys.

I asked him a couple of nights ago. In a dream. He's been gone over 25 years. If it ends of matching it will go a long way toward freaking me out! My wife theorizes he told me and it's in my subconscious but I don't believe so. I always thought LST's had numbers not names. With what I've researched so far, some had names.

I also have a number of friends whose fathers were on LST's at Okinawa and I always wondered if they were on the same one.

Milhouse, some LST's had names, some not. Obviously,
they all had numbers.

Milhouse,

My dad landed on Okinawa in April 1945 aboard LST-1000.

Best of luck to you in your search.

Rereading my post I had to laugh because I know I sound like a moonbat. I had been thinking for a while about 'did my Dad land off a ship where a friend's Dad served?'. Hence my question to him while my subconscious surfed on the astral plane.

I knew all the LST's had numbers. Was thrown by his answer and more surprised to find a few had numbers AND names.

Hey Rich, what outfit was your Dad with. And have you read Goodbye Darkness by William Manchester?

Milhouse,

Dad was with the Tenth Army. He was a Tech Sgt. doing aerial photo analysis.

Haven't read the book but I will check it out.

Just a little off post.

Frederick "I got it by filling out a form to the National Archives and paying $5.00 USD USD"

I have decided to try and follow my fathers career in the royal engineers and have a request form which requires a payment of £30.00 GBP and proof that I am related to him, with no guarantee of success. I wish our government allowed access to old military records for as reasonable a cost as the U.S.

Grumpy John ;-)

Canadian law allows for all access to information request to be free unless the request generates a huge amount of paper (Only paper is supplied, no efiles). Once a service member dies his record goes to the national archives and becomes public domain.