[Homer_J_Simpson]

A friend is interested in learning more about his father’s experiences during the war. I will post the information here in the hope that someone seeing it might have specific information relating to the unit in question.

The gentleman managed to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps at age 16½ in February 1942. A letter he mailed home, postmarked July 27, 1944, has a return address of:

Bat. B., 12th Anti-aircraft Bn.,
c/o Fleet Post Office, San Francisco.

A preliminary search turned up the sites linked below. The first has information about the different Marine Defense Battalions, which became Anti-Aircraft Battalions in 1944. The 12th Battalion is among them. The second mentions a member of the 12th who served on Peleliu. My friend’s father also was on Peleliu.

Any additional information would be appreciated.

Regards,
Homer

http://home.nps.gov/archive/wapa/indepth/extContent/usmc/pcn-190-003133-00/sec15.htm

http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/wwii/peleliu/default.aspx

[Stonewall Jackson]

Here's an article about the USMC Anti-Aircraft (formerly Defense) Battalions, Condition Red.

Before the summer of 1944, the Anti-Aircraft Battalions were designated Defense Battalions. The 12th Defense Battalion served with the 1st Marine Division on Cape Gloucester before becoming the 12th Anti-Aircraft Battalion and serving on Peleliu.

[Lancey Howard]

Your friend should try this site:

http://www.togetherweserved.com/

[snippy_about_it]

The best place to start is here:

http://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records/standard-form-180.html

Veterans or next-of-kin of deceased veterans can use the online order form at vetrecs.archives.gov (or use the SF-180) to request military records.

I used this to find out about where and when my father served. Great service and fast results even though it is from the government. :-)

You can do it all online and they will email you when the information is in the mail so you can have the paperwork.

Once he has this information he can search dates better and places, types of jobs, etc.

[snippy_about_it]

http://www.christiandataresources.com/12thdefensebattalion.htm

From this article it looks like it was the 12th Defense Bn and redesignated in June of 44 to the 12th Anti-aircraft Bn.