The first service number of the United States armed forces(SNs) were first created in 1918 as a result of the becoming involved in World War I and the need for a record tracking system capable of indexing the millions of soldiers who were joining the ranks of the. Prior to this time, the only way to index lists of soldiers was by use of and rolls. As the strength of the National Army rose into the millions, this old method of musters and rosters became outdated and a new system had to be developed.The decision to create Army service numbers was made in February 1918 with the first service numbers to be issued only to Army enlisted personnel; the Army officer corps was still relatively small, and the Navy was still maintaining ship rosters to keep track of its personnel. Dwa-547 driver windows 10. The Marine Corps and Coast Guard were also relatively small organizations without the need for a service number system to track personnel.The first soldier to receive an Army service number during the First World War was who was designated to hold service number 1 in the in February 1918. Throughout the remainder of World War I, service numbers were issued to most enlisted personnel with the numbers eventually ranging from 1 to 5 999 999.In 1920, a year after the close of World War I, the Army introduced the first 'service number prefix' which was intended to be a letter placed in front of the service number to provide additional information about the veteran. The first prefix to be created was R which was used to identify Regular Army personnel who had re-enlisted after the close of World War I and the disbandment of the National Army.
Note Position Letter and Number. For denominations $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100, the note position letter and number indicates in which position on a plate a note was printed. It is a combination of one letter and one number and can be found on the front of the note.
Again, Arthur Crean was the first person to receive a service number prefix, and his new service number became R-1. The Army also created an F prefix for those who had served as World War I field clerks.That same year, the Army opened up the service number rolls to officers and issued the first officer number to.
Pershing held officer service number 1 with the prefix O, making his service number O-1. In 1935, the Army created a second officer prefix, AO, intended for Regular Army officers who were aviators in the.The Army officer number system was determined simply by seniority and entry date into the Army officer corps; between 1921 and 1935, officer numbers ranged from 1 to 19 999.
Enlisted service numbers continued in a similar fashion with enlisted numbers picking up where the World War I numbers had left off; between 1919 and 1940 the numbers ranged from 6 000 000 to 7 099 999. Enlisted personnel who were World War I veterans continued to hold their pre-6 million series service numbers.World War II By 1940, it was obvious to most in the U.S. Military establishment that America would soon be involved in a major war.
To that end, had been introduced and the was activated as an augmentation force to serve in the coming war.Due to the vast numbers of personnel entering the Army ranks, a major expansion to the service number system was required. The original concept was to simply continue with the old service number system and begin with new numbers starting at 8 000 000.
The Army, however, chose a more complicated design with new numbers beginning at 10 000 000. The eight and nine million series were reserved for special uses; eight million series service numbers would later be used strictly by female Army personnel, while the nine million series service numbers were never issued.Enlisted men Wartime service numbers of the Regular Army and the began at 10 000 000 and extended to 19 999 999.
A subset of this series was reserved solely for those who had enlisted from recruiting stations outside of the 48 contiguous states of the United States. The first number after the 'ten' would indicate the geographical region from which a person had enlisted with the remaining numbers an identification number for the soldier. The geographical codes were 10 1 (for ), 10 2 (for ), 10 3 (for the ) and 10 4 (for ). The remaining number codes (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 0) were unassigned and used by various recruiting stations outside the United States. A Regular Army service number, used by a member of the, during World War IIThe 11 000 000 through 19 999 999 series were issued to enlisted personnel who had enlisted within the boundaries of the 48 contiguous states and the territory of Alaska after 1 July 1940. The second number was determined by what group of states a person was recruited from, the next six were an identifying number for the service member; thus, for each geographical area there was an available range of 999,999 service numbers.
The various geographical number codes were as follows:11:,12:,13:,14:,15:,16:,17:,18:,19:,During World War II, the US Army federalized a large number of personnel to augment the growing Army of the United States. Prior to 1940, there was no procedure to issue service numbers to National Guard personnel, since most personnel served completely under the authority of their.Beginning in 1940, National Guardsmen who were federalized were given Army service numbers in the 20 million range with numbers ranging from 20 000 000 to 20 999 999.
Guardsmen federalized from Hawaii were issued service numbers beginning with 20 01 while 20 02 was used by men from Puerto Rico. With the exceptions of Hawaii and Puerto Rico, the first three numbers corresponded to a geographical area where a person had been federalized, and the last five were a personal identifier.
The of showing his thirty million series draft service number with a geographical code of 32 (entrance from New York). The burned edges are the result of the of 1973. After the war In October 1945, the Army discontinued the prefix 'R' and issued the prefix 'RA' to all members of the Regular Army.
At the same time, the Army added several other R series prefixes to deal with special enlisted situations. In all, the R prefix series was:RA: Regular Army enlisted personnelRM: Regular Army enlisted personnel holding temporary appointments as Warrant OfficersRO: Used by Regular Army enlisted personnel holding temporary reserve officer commissionsRP: Retired enlisted personnel recalled to active dutyRV: Female warrant officers granted reserve commissioned officer billetsRW: Male warrant officers granted reserve commissioned officer billetsAfter World War II, the Army of the United States was demobilized and the thirty and forty million series numbers were discontinued.
Personnel of the Regular Army continued to be cycled through the 10 - 19 million series while Army officers continued to be issued numerical numbers determined by date of commission. Final distribution of Army officer service numbersAfter 1969, the Army completely converted to Social Security numbers for the identification of military personnel.Social Security Numbers Discontinued In December 2015, a U.S. Army press release announced that the Army was phasing out the use of soldiers' Social Security numbers on their dog tags. Instead it would use the soldiers' Department of Defense Identification Numbers, which are randomly-generated 10-digit numbers. The change would not happen all at once; it was being implemented 'on an as-needed basis.'
Geographical Codes and Regular Army Distribution State Geographical Codes were used as the first two numbers of an Army or Air Force enlisted service number to indicate where a soldier had entered the U.S. For instance, the service number '12 345 678' would have a geographical code of 12 and a personal identification number of 345,678. A comparison of the state codes between the Regular Army, World War II draft force, and Korea/Vietnam draft force is as follows:StateRegular Army CodeWorld War II CodeKorean/Vietnam War Code5610 120 155173755In 1940, when the United States Army expanded its service numbers beyond ten million, the range of 10 000 000 to 10 999 999 was reserved for Regular Army enlisted personnel who joined from recruiting stations outside the United States. With 999,999 service numbers available in this range, the Regular Army was able to issue service numbers to extra-US enlistees, without repeating numbers, until the disestablishment of service numbers in 1969.The remaining range of 11 000 000 to 19 999 999 was reserved for Regular Army personnel who enlisted from within the United States with the first two numbers a geographical code and the last six a personal identifier.
This gave geographical recruiting areas 999,999 service numbers a piece to allocate to new recruits. The Army directed that every effort should be made to avoid repeating service numbers and allocated only a certain block of numbers for certain time periods of enlistments. The matter was made even more complicated when the Regular Air Force came into being in 1947, also with instructions that the 11–19 million service numbers should not be repeated nor should an Air Force service member be given a service numbers already held by a Regular Army soldier.In general, both the Army and Air Force made every effort to avoid repeating service numbers although some mistakes did occur. Archival of Arthur B. Louis, Missouri.
Military service record of John Pershing, Military Personnel Records Center, St. Louis, Missouri. Daniela Vestal (December 8, 2015). Retrieved April 25, 2016., Military Operations Branch, 'Service number index and registry of retired, deceased, and discharged military personnel' (2007). Freedom of Information Act response, April 2007Sources., Instruction Memo 1865.20E, 'Service Number Information', 14 April 1988., 'Training Guide Concerning Military Service Numbers', 28 June 2009External links.