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The Enterprise Ship's Muster lists enlisted men, aviators and officers who served in Enterprise CV-6, her air groups, and her Flag (Admirals') Staffs between 1938 and 1947. This directory is currently incomplete, but the long-term goal is for it to include all who served in the Big E. Following is a list of Frequently Asked Questions regarding the muster roll and Enterprise personnel.
In peacetime, Enterprise was manned by approximately 1900 men (officially, 1889). During the war, her complement rapidly grew to around 2900 men (2919 at peak). Needless to say, conditions were cramped and "hot-bunking" (several men sleeping in shifts in the same berth) was a common practice, as was sleeping in unconventional quarters.
There is currently no precise answer to this question. Published estimates of the number of men who served in Enterprise range from 10,000 to 30,000. These figures include ship's company, officers, air groups and other staffs. My own estimate is between 15,000 and 17,000 men. This is based on the assumptions that an average man's tour of duty with the Big E was around 18 months long, and that her total complement was just under 3,000 men during wartime.
Individual service records for World War II US Navy and US Naval Reserve veterans are archived at the National Personnel Records Center, in St. Louis, MO. To obtain a copy of a veteran's service record, contact:
National Personnel Records Center
Military Section
9700 Page Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63132
Phone 314-801-0800
You will need the full name, Social Security Number and/or Service Number (both, if available), enlistment and discharge dates, date and place of birth, rank/rate upon discharge or release of the Navy member, the address to where the copy is to be mailed, and a signature of the veteran or bona fide next of kin. For officers who served from 1890 to 1967, the 4 or 6-digit serial number is required.
For further information, please see the National Personnel Records Center web site.
Note: A disastrous fire in July 1973 destroyed many Army and Army Air Force personnel service records. Navy records were not affected by this fire.
As of August 2003, approximately 7000 men and officers are listed in this web site's muster roll. This is (probably) just under half the total number of men who served in Enterprise.
To the best of my knowledge, such a list does not exist. Historically, records for ship's company, air groups, and Flag Staffs were maintained separately. No official effort was made to develop a comprehensive list of personnel, though some individual squadrons have developed complete lists since the war. The latter have been incorporated in this site's muster roll.
It's not possible to give any sort of solid estimate. In a good year, I can add 1,000 - 1,500 partially complete listings to the web site. Assuming such a pace, year after year, then the site muster roll should be approaching a complete list of names in 5-10 years. The task of developing complete entries for all men listed - that is, listing each man's dates of service in the Big E and his highest rate/rank while aboard the ship - may never be complete.
Most listings in this web site's muster roll come from one of three sources:
Additional listings are occasionally obtained from photographs, duty rosters and the like.
The muster is organized alphabetically, by division or unit, and by air group. Additional information about the organization of World War II era aircraft carriers, and common US Navy ratings and pay grades is also available.
Muster entries have a common appearance, whether you're browsing by name, division or other criteria.
| Name: Rating - Unit: Dates Aboard: Additional: |
Lamson, Joyce W. S 1/c ~1942 KIA 24 Aug 1942 |
Laster, Edward W. ENS - VT-10 ~1943 - 1944 |
Leberknight, Wendell ADRC - V-1 Div Dec 1938 - Mar 1942 |
|---|
Each entry consists of up to four lines:
The ship's original muster rolls are available in microfilm format through the National Archives and Records Administration. The muster rolls were made up of quarterly rolls, which were published in March, June, September and December of each year, as well as "Change Reports" which were compiled about once a month.
The muster rolls contain information for enlisted men in ship's company only. Though the microfilm records occasionally contain lists of officers, passengers and Flag Staffs, these are the exception rather than the rule. The muster rolls contain virtually no information about air group personnel.
The quarterly rolls list men assigned to the ship for duty as of the date of record (the last day of the last month of the quarter). For each man, a single muster roll entry contains the following information:
The change reports record when personnel were received aboard the ship, transferred off the ship, promoted or demoted, and occasionally mention incidents such as court martials, leaves, and so on.
Unfortunately (and with great regret) I am not currently accepting requests to add individual crew members to the site's muster roll. It takes 3-4 hours to process a single submission (whether or not any service information is found), and I have been unable to keep up with the number of submissions, let alone have time left over to develop other areas of the site. In the spirit of keeping this a site that tells the story of all of Enterprise's men, I'm currently focusing my efforts on adding new articles and photos. I also plan to transcribe entire quarterly ship's muster rolls, each of which will add hundreds of names to the listings on the site.
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