Record Codes

TYPE RECORD CODES
(From our Indexes)

R - MILITARY REGISTERS AND DIRECTORIES

The US Army and Navy have published lists of permanent officers since their earliest days. These registers contain information, on active officers, retired officers, and those who have left service due to discharge, resignation, or death. We have collected a number of vintage annual registers from the US Army/USAF, USN/USMC, and USCG and offer copies of pages that pertain to any officer listed. The content varies greatly between time periods and branches. Army/Air Force Registers usually contain name, rank, serial number, date of birth, military education, military ratings, corps assignments, retirement date, and dates of promotions. USN/USMC vary greatly between years. Collectively, they include, name rank, serial number, special courses, date of birth, dates of rank, retirement date,date of entry, and months at sea. On most of the registers, listings for those who left service, contain only name, rank, and date of death, if applicable.

SO - WAR DEPARTMENT SPECIAL ORDERS

Special Orders were created for every personnel action of the War Department. (US Army and US Army Air Forces). Unfortunately, most of the day to day actions were done with organizational level Special Orders and those records were only maintained for a short time. However, transfers between corps, officer appointments, officer promotions, special training, retirements, and other special assignments were done by War Department. These records were placed in bound volumes and kept in military libraries until later discarded. We have found a number of these that include sets of the years: 1866, 1867, 1868, 1871, 1874, 1876, 1877, 1879, 1883, 1885, 1887, 1889, 1898, 1903, 1905, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1917, 1918 (Nov-Dec), 1921, 1924, 1926, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1938 (Jun-Dec), 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1945, and 1946 (Jan-Jun). These volumes clearly contain some of the information lost in the tragic 1973 fire in the Defense Personnel Records Center.

We have indexed thousands of names, but it will be a long time before they are all indexed. We will continue to add more as time permits. Please contact us for additional details.

MA - US MILITARY ACADEMY PUBLICATIONS

The US Military Academy Register was published annually and contains information on the academy, instructors and cadets. The grades and class standing of each cadet by class are provided. The USMA Special Orders cover duty assignments, promotion, and other activities for all officers, soldiers and cadets at the USMA. The Howitzer contains a photo of each graduating cadet and group photos of the underclassmen and activities at the academy.

AFS - ARMY AIR FORCES FLYING SCHOOL ROSTERS

WWI - WORLD WAR ONE LISTS AND ROSTERS

O- OTHER DOCUMENTS

This includes sources like published lists of officers, aircraft accident reports, casualty list, and any other publication not otherwise explained.