A WWII veterans discharge document is the best source for learning the facts of his time in service. When starting your research on a WWII veteran, the discharge document is the first thing you should obtain. See "Locating & Obtaining a copy of a WWII Veterans Discharge Document" in another post in this thread section.
One important point i must make concerns an old adage: ' Things May Not Be What They Seem'
The unit shown in Box 6 is a common source of confusion for some people starting their research. The unit shown in Box 6 may NOT be the unit the veteran served in during his or her entire time of service, but may only be the LAST unit he/ she was assigned to and discharged from. For example, many men in the Army Air Corp who flew on bomber crews have an Army Air Forces Base unit ( xxx AAF Base Unit) listed in Box 6. Thousands of high point infantrymen in Europe whose divisions were being redployed to the Pacific or staying for Occupation Duty were transferred to other units to be shipped home and this 2nd unit will be the one shown in Box 6.
This help document is a little lengthy so i put it in a .pdf
Reading & Understanding the WWII Discharge Document.pdf
Thanks for the post. My grandfather's looks a little different. Component ORC is Officer Reserve Corps, yes? So sayeth Wikipedia.
Maj Todd O. USMC, Retired
Grandson of LTC John O'Brien
Yes Todd, on the Officer Reserve Corp. The Army has so many abrev. they all might not fit on the forum 
Anyway, the most common ones i posted are for enlisted men for Form 55-56. If you notice on page 2 of your father`s disharge it is a different form, hard to read but looks like 55-92 or 55-98 ? They used different forms for officers. Thanks for sending your dad`s, i havent seen many of the different officer forms.
Larry
Larry
"I'm proud to be an American, Where at least I know I'm free
And I won't forget the men who died, Who gave that right to me."
God bless the USA - Lee Greenwood
Thought that might interest you.
Maj Todd O. USMC, Retired
Grandson of LTC John O'Brien
On 4/24/2013 at 3:38 PM, SonofaMP said:
A WWII veterans discharge document is the best source for learning the facts of his time in service. When starting your research on a WWII veteran, the discharge document is the first thing you should obtain. See "Locating & Obtaining a copy of a WWII Veterans Discharge Document" in another post in this thread section.
One important point i must make concerns an old adage: ' Things May Not Be What They Seem'
The unit shown in Box 6 is a common source of confusion for some people starting their research. The unit shown in Box 6 may NOT be the unit the veteran served in during his or her entire time of service, but may only be the LAST unit he/ she was assigned to and discharged from. For example, many men in the Army Air Corp who flew on bomber crews have an Army Air Forces Base unit ( xxx AAF Base Unit) listed in Box 6. Thousands of high point infantrymen in Europe whose divisions were being redployed to the Pacific or staying for Occupation Duty were transferred to other units to be shipped home and this 2nd unit will be the one shown in Box 6.
This help document is a little lengthy so i put it in a .pdf
Thank you very much for posting this! I just gained a world of information on my father's Honorable Discharge papers by reading your post.
Thanks for reading it. A lot of work into these informational posts, and I'm delighted to hear that some folks are reading them and also finding them helpful. B)
Larry is no longer with us (sigh), but was a valuable and indispensable part of this forum. He was a huge help to me and many others, and his work lives on.
Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter 'Monday' Poniedzialek
540th Combat Engineer - H&S Company