Military records for the Viet Nam war are maintanied in the National Archives.

National Archives at College Park
8601 Adelphi Road
College Park, MD 20740-6001

Archives II is located on Adelphi Road near the University of Maryland's College Park campus.

 

Archives Index RG 472 book – page 225 starts 101st index.

 

Division

G3 Command Reports – 270/30/27/3-4

Division Combat After Action Report – 270/30/27/3

Division Operational Report – 270/30/27/6

G2 – 270/30/22/5-23/1

G3 journal includes daily sitrep reports in OPORD format

 

Brigade

HHC, 3d brigade after action reports – 472-270-31

3d Bde organizational history – 270/31/2/05-31/2/05

HHC 3d Bde S3:  472-270-31-3-4

 

Battalion

1/506th Inf:  472-270-34-8-1

Infantry Boxes 1191-1202.  Stack area 270, row 34. compartment 32, shelf 4-5.

1196 – 1 June 1969 to 31 Aug 1969
1197 – 1 Sep 1969 to 10 Dec 1969
1198 – 11 Dec 1969 to 31 Mar 1970
1199 – 1 Apr 1970 to 31 May 1970
1200 – 1 Jun 1970 to 31 Jul 1970
1201 – 1 Aug 1970 to 31 Oct 1970
1202 – 1 Nov 1970 to 31 Dec 1970
1203 – 1 Jan 1971 to 30 Apr 1971
1204 – 1 May 1971 to 3 Dec 1971

3/187th Inf:  472-270-34-8-1

3/5th Cav:  472-270-33-10-02

 

General Orders:  472-270-75-22-1 (they start with #2201 March 1969?).  54 boxes total.

Did boxes 9-24 (box 10 is mid 1969)
Box 25 had several awards
Box 26 had several awards
Box 27 had a few
I went through Box 36 (Boxes 30-36 had records from the “new guys”)

2/17th Cav:  472-270-33-10

4/77th Arty – box 892 starts 11 Aug 69

Info Officer – Photographic File – boxes 1-12; have done boxes 3-7; 8+ may have 1/506.  Box 8 is 326th Engr.

MACV J3 E&A files have copies of 101st division level after action reports:

J3 after action report Apache Snow, Box 39 – 472-270-76-22-3
J3 after action report Randolph Glen, Box 43, 472-270-76-22-3

85th Evac Hospital

472-270-35-10-3, boxes 391-392 for 1968 to 1970 general orders (PH)

22d Surgical Hospital

472-270-35-9-1, box 331 for PH’s

18th Surgical Hospital

472-270-35-8-7
Box 325

Not able to find any PH records for USS Sanctuary and Repose

XXIV Corps Info Officer
472/270/24/23/5-24/23/06

Note:  green ledger book award dates may be later than the actual wound date as it may have taken the company some time to report the matter.

HHC 3d Bde / S3 records can be a good source of daily summary and NDP locations.  (NARA 472-270-31-3-4)

101st award files are not very good.  C Company, 1/506th Inf only available for 1971 onward.  Awards are in General Orders files.

326 Med Bn journal records.  These are not very good.  Only contain A Company which was at Camp Eagle.  Not useful for C Co, 1/506th Inf.  472-270-35-2-01.

Viet Nam Order of Battle – see book by Shelby Stanton

2d Sqdn, 17th Cav journals are very thin.  No detail like Inf Bn journals.

Unit identification codes. Each company size unit had a unique code that was adopted sometime about 1969. Charlie Company's code is "WACRCO." This code will be on the division's general orders and helps to find men from Charlie Company. After a few hours of flipping papers, your eyes will jump to the WACRCO and you will have found another record of Charlie Company men!

WACRTO – HHC
WACRAO – Alpha
WACRBO – Bravo
WACRCO – Charlie
WACRDO – Delta
WACREO – Echo

Adjutant General Award Case Files – box 37 for 1/506

Intelligence Summaries:  270/30/23/2

They report activities, aerial recon, bomb strikes and some agent reports – not too useful

3d Bde S2 files

Did not find yet a Granite after action report

3d bde has situation reports, operations reports, and command reports – need to check these out.

G3 after action reports not too useful so far.

Photos

Been through the first two card catalog boxes and the two “firebase” catalogs.  Did last two VN card catalogs.  Found a few pics in boxes 415, 416, 417, 418, 420, 421, 422, 423

On 5th floor, NARA, viewed the following photos:

111-SCA “album” book 44, 3049VV
111-CRB-63 VN aerials
111-CCV-01, Aerials A
111-CCV-19 photos 1968-1969
RG 111-CV-25 Units 101st 1969-1970
111-CCS – VN units 101st , Box 115

Request format “111-SC Box 9-12 – OLD

RG 111-CCV Photos of US Army Opns in VN 1963-1973.

Box 25:  111-CCV-25-626 (1969); 111-CCV-25-627 (1970)

Box 9
111-CCV-09-226 – Fire Support Bases

Box 19
111-CCV-19-480 – VN, Signal Corps Activ Photographs 1969; 111-CCV-19-481, year 1970

“Army Signal Corps” 111-SC-1955-1981”

506th:

SC 650236,37, 47, 48
SC 655622
SC 649725

SC 654043, 53 – Oct 69
SC 654044-46 – Oct 69

A Shau

SC 648027-42 Aug 68
653212, 13, 14 – Nov 69
651510 – Aug 69
651182-205 – Jul 69
652473

In general, look under “Viet Nam” in card catalog

653214 – Nov 69
661814 – Caribou Apr 71
661819 Berchtesgaden Apr 71

Bastogne
657471-73 – May 70
650944 – Jun 69
650931-43 Jun 69

Birmingham

657468 May 70
657469

Blaze Sep 69

652775
652774

661813 – 4/71 Abandoned Air Strip in A Shau
Savrin:  0958-1-71

Berchtesgaden

61819 – 4/71 abandoned

661824 – 4/71 - Rendezvous

These are notes taken during several visits to the National Archives at College Park. I found the staff there to be very helpful but also very busy. It normally takes a visit or two to learn the system and how to request research items.

To some extent, the request process is like Catch 22. You have to know what to ask for to get the correct box and of course, initially, you don't know what is in a grouping of boxes. Trial and error is helpful.

"RG" stands for record group. All of the 101st Airborne records are in RG 472. To request records, you will need to fill out a form. The form will require numbers like: 472-270-34-8-1 for the 1/506th. These are record group, stack area, row, compartment, and shelf. If you visit the archives, there are research assistants who can help the first time or two that you fill out the request form.

Different record types are on different floors of the archives building. If memory serves me, most of the written records such as battalion journals are on the third floor while the photo archives are on the fifth floor.

Most of the award files are in the 101st airborne general order boxes. They are organized in date sequence so to find records with Currahee's, you have to go through the folders page by page.

A suggestion for serious research is to bring a digital camera with a tripod for use in taking photos of the pages that you want to copy. They have copy machines but the photo process works much faster. I copied or photo's about 3,600 pages from the 1/506th battalion journals.

There were times when Charlie Company was attached to other battalions. In those cases, it is necessary to get those battalion journals to see what took place with Charlie Company.

 

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