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Question about Military records - "Organization"


Black Angus McPherson

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My wife asked me about an entry on her grandfather's POW records that lists his "Organization" as:

 

"Branch Immaterial Infantry Division Band Dental Co"

 

If someone would explain exactly what that means we'd appreciate it. Oh yeah, and they tell me he was not a Dentist.

 

He was "Army,Infantry" Private First Class.

 

Thanks,

 

Angus

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A Unit Manning Report, or UMR, is a document that states the authorized rank, MOS, and duty position title of each person in the unit. The term "branch immaterial" means he was placed in a slot on the UMR that had no specific MOS requirement; any MOS would do. From deciphering that phrase, it looks like his particular slot was in the band belonging to an infantry division. I, for the life of me, cannot figure out why "dental" would appear.

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Perhaps "Dental" is supposed to be "Delta".Just a guess.

That's quite possible. I've seen some goofy typos on military records.

Like they aren't hard enough for civilians to decipher to start with.

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Wouldn't that depend on how old his wife's grandfather is? Or, more better, what war he was a POW in?

 

WW2, and, I'm pretty sure, Korea, it weren't Alpha Bravo Charlie Delta, it were Able Baker Charlie Dog.

 

Hard to typo Dog into Dental.

 

Yeah, I just checked, and Wiki says they came up with the Alpha Bravo in '56.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Army/Navy_Phonetic_Alphabet

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That's quite possible. I've seen some goofy typos on military records.

Like they aren't hard enough for civilians to decipher to start with.

Happens all the time, I once got orders that said Kuwait, but I know it was supposed to be Hawaii

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Wouldn't that depend on how old his wife's grandfather is? Or, more better, what war he was a POW in?

 

WW2, and, I'm pretty sure, Korea, it weren't Alpha Bravo Charlie Delta, it were Able Baker Charlie Dog.

 

Hard to typo Dog into Dental.

 

Yeah, I just checked, and Wiki says they came up with the Alpha Bravo in '56.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Army/Navy_Phonetic_Alphabet

That's not always true. There were several naming conventions around during those times, so Delta could be the correct answer. There simply cannot be a dental position within the division band; it has to be something else.

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He was a prisoner of the Germans in WWII. I thought about "Delta", too. I guess that would mean he was in Delta Company?

 

FWIW I'm not sure this was a government site they found this on. It was some type of POW site. I'll try to find it again so I can post it.

 

Thanks,

 

Angus

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Happens all the time, I once got orders that said Kuwait, but I know it was supposed to be Hawaii

:D

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