ARMY/AIR FORCE SERVICE NUMBERS
Most
of the pilots in our indexes were or would soon become officers. A Future
pilot could be given an enlisted number
at the start of his career, a reserve officer number when he was commissioned
and a regular army number, if he was
appointed to the regular army. There were still more numbers assigned
after the Army and Air Force split in 1947.
It was possible for a pilot to have several service numbers during the
span of his career. We have made every attempt
to provide the correct service numbers from the aircraft accident reports.
Unfortunately, service numbers were not
provided on reports for before 1941 and we are forced to use other resources
to obtain those numbers and some of
those numbers may be an ealier or later number for the same person.
This is a new field and most are blank. They
will be filled as we reindex all of the reports, which is in work.