I Need Your Help!

Posted:
By: Valerie Conley McAlister
On: 12/11/2003

Have located some older records of my Fathers, Joseph Conley. On his discharge of April 1936 (Hq and Services Company, 1st Engineers), there is a line that reads:

"457 days bad time under AW 107"

Now I know what bad time is, I worked for the recruiters, but I can't seem to find anyone to tell me what AW 107 was. Could that possibly be the precursor to the UCMJ? If anyone knows, please let me know so I can research this further. It just seems funny to me that if my Dad had over a year of bad time, he wouldn't have been Honorably Discharged due to ETS, with the comment: Character: Excellent. He would have received a BCD. I would like to research this and correct his records if necessary.

Thanks once again!

Valerie

Re: I Need Your Help!

Posted:
By: Fred Corley
On: 12/11/2003

The AW stands for Articles of War and was the precursor to the present UCMJ. I don't know where you could find a copy, but it shouldn't be too hard to come by. I imagine that you could get it off of the internet.

Re: I Need Your Help!

Posted:
By: Valerie Conley McAlister
On: 12/11/2003

I have spent several hours searching for "Articles of War" and all I can find are versions up to and including the Civil War and those do not have an Article 107. I tried seeing if possibly it just transferred over to the UCMJ but Article 107 of the UCMJ is "making a false statement" and doesn't seem to me that he would have had 457 days bad time from that.

I'm going to keep searching on Army History sites and see if I can find anything there.

Thanks!

Re: I Need Your Help!

Posted:
By: Win Bryson
On: 12/11/2003

Valerie:

I don't have a direct source, but a few suggestions:

1. Try these two Army websites' 'contact us' e-mail address. They've been helpful to me, even if it's only a response with other contacts.  Maybe you'll get lucky on both the 'AW' and service record clarifications:
- U.S.Army Military History Institute, http://carlisle-www.army.mil/usamhi.html; and
- U.S. Army Center for Military History,
http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/.

2. Your father's home-state's Adjutant General's Office may also have records or references.  You might find their address (web or mail) through that state's official website (or links) or your local public library.

3. The Veterans Administration may have pertinent info (but I've not tried to search-out anything with them). They have a website, (I don't have its address).

4. Your local library can probably, if you're a cardholder, find, if they don't have, a 'loan-copy' of the Articles of War - and through inter-library loan (for a small fee) arrange to get it for you to read.

Good hunting.

Re: I Need Your Help!

Posted:
By: Scott McElvain
On: 12/12/2003

Or check with the Air Force Historical Research Agency (AFHRA) .........

Re: I Need Your Help!

Posted:
By: Valerie Conley McAlister
On: 12/13/2003

Actually, I got lucky yesterday. I work at the Air Force Institute of Technology. I decided to check in our library archives and low and behold -- they had a copy of the Articles of War and I was able to check it out. Now, I just need to send for that portion of his records to find out what the heck happened!

Thanks all of you for your help!

Val