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How does one find out what crew members were aboard ships.The jaws thread got me to wondering because wife’s grandads ship was sunk in the pacific and all he ever mentioned was floating around a few days.

Your best bet is to try and find out what ships he was on. You can get his service records from the National Archives if they have survived. Also try a site like Fold3 or Ancestry for records they may have. They should give you the dates he was aboard ship and from there it is not hard to trace the ships sinking.

Start here...discharge papers help.

link

I have my father’s record and it has the crew listed in sort of a manifest moving them to meet the ship (LST 29).

By going through his various movement orders and the endorsements, I’ve pretty much figured out where and when he was moved through the war.

If you do a search with the ships name and/or number, some will have the crew listed. Some list battles or engagements that they were in.

The only thing I know was he ran bulldozers and drove trucks so I assume he was building airfields

Sounds like he may have been in the Seabee’s.
My great uncle was in the Seabee’s in the pacific. I asked him if he helped build airfields and he said his unit used coral to build piers out into the water so the ships could unload their cargo.