Golden Arrow Military Research

07/11/2024

This little slot in an Army service book is a valuable find. Showing assignments, stations and dates of arrival it gives a nearly complete list of a veteran's time in service. We can drill down on the unit assignments to find daily information!

06/11/2024

Here's a rare find in an Individual Deceased Personnel File - photos of the veteran supplied by the family to assist in the identification of his remains.

05/11/2024

Voting by mail began during the US Civil War, when soldiers stationed far from home still wanted to participate in elections in their home states. In the face of overwhelming logistical challenges including two world wars, the US Military eventually crafted a system which would allow personnel to securely cast their vote from anywhere in the world.
This 1944 photo taken in the Pacific Theater shows airmen from nine different states taking part in the national election from a voting tent.

04/11/2024

When we think of medical treatment during wartime, we think of battle wounds and grievous injuries. The truth is that war didn't pause all the regular illnesses, as shown by this soldier's attack of appendicitis on the front line. He required a routine appendectomy performed in the field and ended up in a hospital for a few days of recovery before returning to his battle unit.

03/11/2024

"I sincerely appreciate you sending my late son's check...I can't tell you what this loss has done to me & my daughter who is 19 years of age & to my late Son girl. He was to be married as soon as he would get his furlough & to the grandest girl. I was very proud of my son who was very understanding and devoted to me & my daughter. He had no father. Its a terrible heartache for a Mother to go on. I expect my daughter to be married in the near future to a boy coming home from the Pacific. He just completed his missions on a B29 & a lovely boy too. God does these things why we do not know. My son would have been a wonderful Journalist if he would have come home when this War ended which I hope for all the boys to come home..."

Researching facts and dates is part of what we do; telling the story is the reason for the research.

02/11/2024

It's such a pleasure and a privilege to have clients like this!
A favorite review of ours, first because we were able to answer our client's personal research questions and second, because photos went out to other families as well!
Thank you, and we appreciate all of you!

01/11/2024

Great photo of a medal presentation ceremony. Many Signal Corps photos like this are identified with at least the unit and location, allowing us to track down the medal citations for the award being given. Sometimes even the personnel shown are identified.

31/10/2024

30/10/2024

Not an early Halloween photo!
These four soldiers are sporting their gas masks inside a gas training chamber. All personnel were required to take this training, which started in WWI after horrific uses of poison gas on the front lines. It's recorded in service books as 'Went through Gas Chamber'.
The goal was to make sure they could get that mask on correctly as fast as humanly possible and do so without panicking. The belief was that a controlled exposure would prepare them for the real thing, so of course... real gas was used.
Unlike other training exercises, this was not graded on a point system. It was strictly pass/fail.

29/10/2024

Possibly the most adorable Coast Guard crew ever, Salty and her kittens!

28/10/2024

Ouch.

26/10/2024

Haunted by a bad research experience?
Put those ghosts to rest by visiting our website today!

25/10/2024

Here's a short how-to guide to finding WWII and Korean era General Orders on the Golden Arrow website! They're free to browse, so please share!

24/10/2024

A Purple Heart is awarded to any service member who is wounded in action against the enemy. It was first instituted by George Washington in 1782, as a way of recognizing three of his 'common soldiers' for their bravery and sacrifices. It would not be awarded again until after WWI.
By custom, most awards were reserved for officers. Washington's 'Badge of Military Merit' set a US precedent that would later expand into merit based awards like the Silver Star and the Distinguished Flying Cross. Both enlisted and officers were eligible for merit awards but it would take over a century for the awards to take their current form.
During WWI, soldiers received a cloth 'Wound Chevron' that symbolized the bandages placed on injuries. In 1932 the 'Badge of Merit' was revived as 'The Purple Heart' by the Army, and WWI soldiers with Wound Chevrons were allowed to apply for the medal.
This paperwork shows one Marine's application and the proof of wounds statement he supplied.

23/10/2024

This small form comes from a pension file, and it was a WWII veteran's literal ticket to a new civilian life. As part of the GI Bill, veterans were offered skills training in trades or stipends for education, paid for by the government. This program was very successful but it was especially effective for veterans who entered service barely out of high school; they had spent years at war during a time when they would otherwise have been moving into adulthood.

22/10/2024

A very cool side-by-side from two different files. These are from a burial map key; each numbered grave site is labeled with information on the fallen soldier buried there. An X- # # # was the ID assigned to an unknown for paperwork purposes.
The lists on the left sides show many 'X' unknowns in 1946 - an updated sheet from 1948 on the right sides shows how few unknowns are left.
It also shows investigations still in progress of 'British' and 'Unknown American' soldiers, and a few changes in identification. These could be corrections, or they could be newer interments made when an identified soldier was returned home for burial.

21/10/2024

An October Monday is a good day to talk about a technical gremlin - Horror Lights! Commonly known as overhead fluorescent ceiling lights, they are the bane of researchers everywhere.
There's nothing actually wrong with this photo; the light squares are literally the reflection of a line of overhead fluorescent box lights picked up by a scanner.

20/10/2024

How can we help you tell your veteran's story? Contact us today via the website to find out!