Re: Locating a US airman by service No??

[RSwank]

AAF serial numbers during the war were of the form 41-234.....,or 42-234... , etc. The prefix was 41-, 42-, 43-, 44-, 45-. On the tails of planes the leading "4" and the "-" were dropped, so plane serial numbers written in the "short" form started with the second digit, i.e. 1 through 5. Since this number starts with "8" it does not seem to have a valid "form".

In Bomb Group reports, planes were often identified by the last 3 or 4 digits. While those digits could be anything, it would be odd to see the last 5 digits used, (81835) though I suppose that is possible. 44-81835 was an AT-6.