T/5 (highest documented); grade at release not found · 878th Signal Company, Depot, Aviation (last documented unit)
Army Air Forces · Service no. 19 163 400
Service Number
19 163 400
Documented rank
T/5 (highest documented); grade at release not found
Last documented unit
878th Signal Company, Depot, Aviation
MOS
405 — clerk-typist
Theater
European Theater of Operations (ETO)
This timeline reconstructs Richard's World War II service from
his enlistment record and the Morning Reports, orders and unit records held by the National Archives, searched
by service number. Each entry cites its source; items marked
Newly discovered were recovered from the records.
Map of Service
Route reconstructed from confirmed locations.
Service stops
Los Angelesenlisted 28 Sep 1942
Gainesville, Floridabefore May 1943
San Antonio, Texasaircrew trainee, May 1943
Truax Field, Wisconsintechnical school, Dec 1943
Scott Field, IllinoisFeb 1944
Camp Kilmer, New Jersey17 Feb 1944
EnglandChilbolton and Membury, 1944
FranceReims and Louvemont, 1944
Route notes
1 → 2At Gainesville before May 1943
2 → 3Joined 18 May 1943
3 → 4At Truax Field by 2 Dec 1943
4 → 5Ordered on, Feb 1944
5 → 6Reported 17 Feb 1944
6 → 7In England by 19 Mar 1944
7 → 8In France by 25 Sep 1944
First time here?
How to read this service timeline
This page brings together records created for different purposes. The labels below tell you what kind of evidence supports each entry; open either guide when a record or military term is unfamiliar.
?
Confirmed — Service record
A personal military record supports the entry.
Confirmed — Unit record
A record created by his unit names him or documents the unit’s activity.
Context
Helpful background, clearly separated from personal evidence.
Newly discovered
Information recovered during this research, rather than supplied at the start.
How to read a Morning Report
Morning Reports were daily administrative records prepared by individual Army and Army Air Forces units. They generally recorded changes—such as arrivals, transfers, promotions, illness, or return to duty—not a complete list of everyone present.
MORNING REPORT · SAMPLE
1Organization Company A, 123rd Infantry
2Station or location Camp Example, Virginia
3Date 14 September 1944
4Section Personnel changes
5Pvt Smith, John A., 35123456 6asgd fr Hq Co per SO 187, Hq 123d Inf
In plain English
Private John A. Smith, identified by Army Serial Number 35123456, was assigned to Company A from Headquarters Company under Special Orders No. 187.
1Organization: the company, hospital, squadron, or other unit filing the report.
2Station or location: where that unit reported from on that date.
3Report date: the date of the report, which may differ from the effective date of a change.
4Section: the part of the form containing personnel changes or the unit’s record of events.
5Soldier entry: usually rank, name, and Army Serial Number.
6Change and authority: what happened and the order authorizing it.
asgd
assigned
atchd
attached
trfd
transferred
fr
from
aptd
appointed
EM
enlisted men
SO
Special Orders
GO
General Orders
orgn
organization
sta
station
Common military and research terms
Army Serial Number (ASN)
The unique service number used to distinguish one soldier from others with similar names.
Discharge or separation paper
The document issued when a service member left active service. For many WWII Army enlisted soldiers, this is WD AGO Form 53-55. It summarizes service but is not a day-by-day history.
Morning Report
An Army unit’s daily administrative report. It usually lists people whose status changed, not every person in the unit.
Unit record
A document created by a military organization. It may name the soldier directly or provide context about his unit; the timeline states which applies.
OMPF or “201 file”
The service member’s Official Military Personnel File. Many Army and Air Force files were damaged or destroyed in the 1973 National Personnel Records Center fire.
Unit and final unit
A unit is the organization in which someone served. The final unit is the organization shown at separation; it may not be the only unit in the service history.
Rank or grade
The service member’s level in the military hierarchy. A timeline may show changes in rank over time.
MOS
Military Occupational Specialty—the Army’s classification for a soldier’s primary military job.
Assigned and attached
Assigned means formally placed in a unit. Attached usually means serving with a unit temporarily while belonging administratively elsewhere.
Special Orders and General Orders
Official directives used to authorize personnel actions, awards, organizational changes, and other decisions.
Campaign credit
Official recognition for service connected with a named campaign. It does not, by itself, describe a service member’s individual actions.
Station or location
The place from which a unit filed a report. It does not automatically prove that every member was physically present there.
Source citation
The note beneath a timeline entry identifying the record or records that support it.
Service Timeline
22 min
Confirmed — Record
May 10, 1922
Born in Pasadena, Los Angeles County, California
Richard James Dobbins was born in Pasadena on 10 May 1922 to Horace Murrel Dobbins and Elsa Peters Morse Dobbins. His own application for a Social Security account number, filed with the federal government and held today by the National Archives, gives that date, that birthplace and both parents by name. The state's own birth register, the Veterans Administration's index and the Social Security death record all give 10 May 1922 as well.
Richard registered for the draft seven weeks after his twentieth birthday, at Local Board No. 187 in Longfellow School, Pasadena. Selective Service held its fifth registration that day, 30 June 1942, for men born between 1 January 1922 and 30 June 1924. He fell inside it.
Registering did not put him in uniform. It put his name in the pool. Three months later he went to Los Angeles and enlisted on his own.
The card names his civilian employer, and no other record does: Lockheed Aircraft, Burbank. His enlistment record leaves the occupation field as an undefined code, so this one line is all we have of how he spent the months before the Army.
He gave his address as 784 Linda Vista, Pasadena, and wrote down Mrs. Herbert Horsfall, at that same house, as the person who would always know where to find him. She was his mother, Elsa Morse Dobbins, by then remarried and going by Mrs. Elsa Morse Horsfall. Richard was living with her when he signed.
Two numbers on the card belong to Selective Service and not to the Army: the order number 11537 and the board serial N 60. His Army serial number, 19163400, came in September.
The registrar filled in the back. Six feet two, 168 pounds, gray eyes, blonde hair, light complexion, an appendix scar. No other record describes his face or his build.
The front of the card, in his own hand: Richard James Dobbins, 784 Linda Vista, Pasadena; age 20; born 10 May 1922 at Pasadena; employer Lockheed Aircraft, Burbank. He signed it at the bottom.The registrar’s report on the back: 6 ft 2 in, 168 lb, gray eyes, blonde hair, light complexion, an appendix scar. Stamped Local Board No. 187, Los Angeles County, Longfellow School, Pasadena and dated 30 June 1942.
Richard enlisted at Los Angeles and entered the Army as a private, four months past his twentieth birthday. The Army gave him the serial number 19163400, the thread that identifies him through the records on this page. Most of the individual records carry those eight digits beside his name; the two exceptions are explained where they appear.
The National Archives publishes his enlistment record, and it sketches the young man who signed it. A native Californian, born 1922, with four years of high school behind him, single and without dependents, coming into the Army from civil life. His branch is recorded as the Air Corps.
This is the earliest unit record that names him. At 6:30 on the morning of 18 May 1943, 149 privates reached a squadron at San Antonio, Texas, and its clerk typed every one of them into the morning report: “The following named Enl Arcr Tr. (Pvts) (149) asgd & jd fr Gainesville, Fla, per SO 26 par 1 at 0630.” Enlisted aircrew trainees, assigned and joined from Gainesville, Florida. The list runs in alphabetical order over several sheets, and the third carries Dobbins, Richard J. 19163400.
The cover of the month’s reports is lettered by hand 886th Cl. Cntr. Sq., A/C Squadron 108, and the squadron’s sick entries name the hospital at SAACC, the San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center, where the Army Air Forces tested and classified candidates for flying training. Eight months after he enlisted, Richard was in the aircrew program, and he had come to San Antonio from Gainesville.
The cover of the squadron’s reports for May 1943, San Antonio, Texas.The entry opens: “The following named Enl Arcr Tr. (Pvts) (149) asgd & jd fr Gainesville, Fla.”Two sheets on, the last line of the left-hand column: Dobbins, Richard J. 19163400. The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.
Source: Morning Reports — 886th Cl. Cntr. Sq. (A/C Squadron 108), San Antonio, Texas, May 1943, entries of 18 May — Catalog file unit NAID 425986258, images 2442, 2476 and 2478 (NARA Roll 0508)
Confirmed — Unit record
June 10, 1943
Transferred to Squadron 114
Three weeks on, the same squadron moved five of its trainees: “The following named EAT’s, Pvt’s (5) trfd to Sq 114 per AM 192 par 2 at 1300.” Richard is one of the five. Two of the others tie the page to him: Oliver A. Chalifoux had arrived with him from Gainesville, and Louis C. Ermert was beside him again eight months later on the shipment list at Camp Kilmer. The typing on this sheet is faint and his serial number is only partly legible, so the identification rests on his name and on those two men.
No record found says what Squadron 114 was or how his classification ended. The next record places him in December at the Army Air Forces technical school at Truax Field.
The cover of the squadron’s reports for June 1943.10 June: five trainees transferred to Squadron 114, Dobbins, Richard J. among them. The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.
Source: Morning Reports — 886th Cl. Cntr. Sq. (A/C Squadron 108), San Antonio, Texas, June 1943, entry of 10 June — Catalog file unit NAID 425986258, images 2498 and 2503 (NARA Roll 0508)
Confirmed — Unit record
December 2, 1943
Truax Army Air Field, Madison, Wisconsin
He is a Private First Class with the 100th Technical School Squadron, 45th Technical School Group, listed under attached unassigned. Truax Field was an Army Air Forces radio and radar training center. The same line records him going from duty to the station hospital that day, in line of duty. Thirteen days later the squadron’s report brings him back: “above 2 EM fr Sta Hosp (LD) to dy,” from the station hospital to duty.
His line on the morning report of 2 December 1943: 19163400 *Dobbins, Richard J. Pfc, and beneath it, “above 2 EM dy to Sta Hosp (LD).” The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.15 December 1943: 19163400 *Dobbins, Richard J. Pfc — “above 2 EM fr Sta Hosp (LD) to dy.” The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.
Source: Morning Report — 100th Technical School Squadron, 45th Technical School Group, Truax Army Air Field — Catalog file unit NAID 457804000, images 795 and 833 (NARA Roll 0045; reports of 2 and 15 December 1943). Training-center context: Air Force Historical Research Agency, History of Air Education and Training Command, https://www.afhistory.af.mil/Portals/64/Books/Titles/Complete%2080th%20Anniversary%20History%20V2%20Red1.pdf?ver=Hv944rcJfieAx_HO8MRF1g%3D%3D
Confirmed — Unit record
January 27, 1944
Special Orders No. 27 — a school class at Truax Field
Headquarters of the Technical School at Truax Field published Special Orders No. 27, and paragraph 9 lists the enlisted men attached to the 100th Technical School Squadron. His entry reads “Pfc DOBBINS, RICHARD J. 19163400 ROAACS 23-44”: his name, his number, and an unexplained school-course notation. The heading over the list gives the specialty number of the men on it as 521, which in the Army's classification of enlisted men meant basic, a soldier not yet qualified in a trade. The Scott Field order in the next entry shows what paragraph 9 of this order did: it sent these men to Scott Field, Illinois.
Special Orders No. 27: Pfc DOBBINS, RICHARD J. 19163400 ROAACS 23-44. The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.
Source: Special Orders No. 27, paragraph 9, Headquarters, Technical School, AAF Technical Training Command, Truax Field, Madison, Wisconsin, 27 January 1944 — Catalog file unit NAID 463666827, image 2404 (NARA Roll 0354). Specialty number 521 per War Department TM 12-427, Military Occupational Classification of Enlisted Personnel. The same page is filed in several units’ records: NAID 463666827, images 2538 and 2664; NAID 463667641, images 15, 174, 181, 304, 425, 539, 664, 669, 801 and 917; NAID 463668642, images 1032 and 1425
Confirmed — Unit record
February 3, 1944
Scott Field, Illinois — assigned to an overseas shipment
A week after the Truax order, headquarters of the technical school at Scott Field, Illinois, recorded the men’s arrival: “having reported this sta at 0620 this date in compliance with par. 9a SO 27, Hq, TS, AAFTTC, Truax Fld, Wis, 27 Jan 44 are asgd Proj AM-200-BP-J and atchd 367th Tech Sch Sq for adm, qrs and rations pending issuance of further Os.” Richard is on the list as Pfc (521) Richard J. Dobbins 19163400. AM-200-BP-J is the shipment he went overseas with, and this is the day he was put on it.
Special Orders No. 34, Scott Field: Pfc (521) Richard J. Dobbins 19163400, assigned to Project AM-200-BP-J. The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.
Source: Special Orders No. 34, paragraph 62 (Extract), Headquarters, Technical School, AAF Technical Training Command, Scott Field, Illinois, 3 February 1944 — Catalog file unit NAID 463664338, image 2213 (NARA Roll 0353)
Confirmed — Unit record
February 17, 1944
Camp Kilmer, New Jersey — the staging camp for New York
Two weeks later Richard reported to Camp Kilmer, outside New Brunswick, New Jersey, the staging camp for the New York Port of Embarkation. By the National Archives’ count the camp processed 1,320,481 servicemen for duty overseas. The order that records his arrival says the men had come “in comp with Par 9 SO 45 HQ Technical School, AAFTTC, Scott Field, Ill., 14 Feb ’44”: the technical school at Scott Field, Illinois, had ordered them east three days before. It attaches him and the rest of shipment AM-200-BP-J to the camp “for rat and adm pending shipt”, rations and administration, pending shipment. The order names no ship and no sailing date. A month later the records find him in England. The shipment’s own roster, filed in England with the papers of the depot that received it, lists him in Squadron J-7, Flight One, with his number typed correctly.
Shipment AM-200-BP-J at Camp Kilmer: Pfc Richard J Dobbins. The clerk typed his serial as 19103400, one digit out. The men around him, Pfc Albert F Dankovich 15132980 and Pvt Ivor H Dillon Jr 37521327, are the men beside him on the Truax and Scott Field orders, and the shipment roster below gives his number correctly. The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.Roster of A.F. Fillers (AM-200-BP-J), Squadron J-7, Flight One: DOBBINS, RICHARD J. Pfc 19163400 521 AC. The line above his is a different soldier, Lester B. Dobbins. The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.
Source: Special Orders No. 44, paragraph 6 (Extract), Headquarters Army Service Forces, New York Port of Embarkation, Camp Kilmer, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 17 February 1944 — Catalog file unit NAID 464720742, image 1910; and Roster of A.F. Fillers (AM-200-BP-J), NAID 467244306, image 168 (NARA Roll 0756). Camp total per National Archives at New York City, Camp Kilmer, https://www.archives.gov/files/nyc/public/camp-kilmer.pdf
Confirmed — Unit record
March 15, 1944
Fersfield, Norfolk, England — the first records of him overseas
Richard is in England, at the airfield the clerk typed as “Firsfield, Norfolk,” AAF Station 554. Squadron F of the 17th Replacement Control Depot carries him as attached unassigned, a man in the pipeline waiting for the unit he would serve with. Its report of 15 March sends him “fr dy to sk in Hosp (LD)”, from duty to sick in hospital, in line of duty. The hospital was the 65th General Hospital, whose Detachment of Patients lists him attached on 14 March and released to duty on the 19th, and the depot’s report of 19 March takes him back: “fr Hosp to Dy (LD).”Rex E. Brooks is on the hospital’s lists beside him both times, and Brooks and Gillman J. Leahy move on with him in the next entry.
15 March: 19163400 Dobbins, Richard J. Pfc — “(Atchd Unasgd) fr dy to sk in Hosp (LD).” The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.65th General Hospital, Detachment of Patients, 14 March: attached and joined, 19163400 Dobbins, Richard J. Pfc, with Rex E. Brooks on the line above. The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.65th General Hospital, 19 March: released from the Detachment of Patients, to duty. The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.19163400 Dobbins, Richard J. Pfc AC — “(Atchd Unasgd) fr Hosp to Dy (LD).” The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.The depot squadron’s report of 11 April 1944: 19163400 Dobbins, Richard Y. Pfc, his middle initial mistyped, third in a list of five men. The entry runs on to the next sheet: “above 5 EM fr sk qrs to dy (LD).” A late entry, written two weeks after he had joined the 878th. The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.
Source: Morning Reports — Squadron “F”, 17th Replacement Control Depot (Aviation), AAF Station 554, Firsfield, Norfolk — Catalog file unit NAID 467244306, images 193 and 223 (NARA Roll 0756; reports of 15 and 19 March 1944). Detachment of Patients, 65th General Hospital, APO 551 — NAID 466909637, images 1065 and 1084 (NARA Roll 0666; 14 and 19 March 1944). The depot squadron’s report of 11 April 1944 (NAID 469288570, image 814, Roll 0606) repeats his name in a late return-to-duty entry, written after he had left
Confirmed — Unit record
March 21, 1944
Bamber Bridge, Lancashire — moved to the 13th Replacement Control Depot
Two days on, he is at AAF Station 569 at Bamber Bridge in the north-west of England, attached to the 13th Replacement Control Depot by order of Eighth Air Force Service Command. The clerk wrote the same three men on consecutive lines: Richard, Gillman J. Leahy, Rex E. Brooks. Brooks turns up beside him once more the following week. The depot he left recorded the same move the same day: “above 3 EM trfd in gr to Repl Pool 13TH RCD.”
The three men listed together: 19163400 Dobbins, Richard J. Pfc / 12207747 Leahy, Gillman J. Pvt / 15108784 Brooks, Rex E. Pvt — “Atchd unasgd per SO 74 Par 20 Hq 8th AFSC.” The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.The 17th Replacement Control Depot, 21 March: Dobbins, Brooks and Leahy “trfd in gr to Repl Pool 13TH RCD.” The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.
Source: Morning Report — Headquarters & Headquarters Squadron, 13th Replacement Control Depot, AAF Station 569, Bamber Bridge — Catalog file unit NAID 467138348, image 830 (NARA Roll 0726; March 1944); and Squadron “F”, 17th Replacement Control Depot, NAID 467244306, image 228 (NARA Roll 0756; 21 March 1944). The order itself, paragraph 20, Special Orders No. 74, Headquarters Eighth Air Force Replacement Depot, 14 March 1944, is filed at NAID 467138348, image 793, and NAID 467244306, image 210
Confirmed — Unit record
March 27, 1944
Chilbolton, Hampshire — joined the 878th Signal Company, Depot, Aviation
This is the day the waiting ended and Richard got his unit. The order came first: Special Orders No. 81 of the 13th Replacement Control Depot, 24 March 1944, transferred nine men to the 878TH SIG. CO. DEP. AVN, AAF STA 404, travel by rail or government motor transport, and among them is Pfc Richard J. Dobbins (521) 19163400. The morning report of the 878th Signal Company, Depot, Aviation, at Station Chilbolton in Hampshire, adds nine enlisted men: “Above 9 EM asgd fr 13th RCD 24 Mar 44 & jd this date.” His is the last name on the first page, and the sentence that covers the nine runs over onto the second. Both pages are below. Every later unit record found, in England and then in France, carries him with this company.
Special Orders No. 81, 13th Replacement Control Depot, 24 March 1944. Under 878TH SIG. CO. DEP. AVN, AAF STA 404: Pfc Richard J. Dobbins (521) 19163400. The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.The last line on the page: 19163400 Dobbins, Richard J. (521) Pfc, assigned from the 13th Replacement Control Depot and joined this date. The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.Page 2 opens with the sentence that covers him: “Above 9 EM asgd fr 13th RCD 24 Mar 44 & jd this date.” Signed Charles H. Mullen, Captain, Signal Corps.
Source: Morning Report — 878th Signal Company, Depot, Aviation, Station Chilbolton, Hants — Catalog file unit NAID 467115408, images 2715 and 2716 (NARA Roll 0719; March 1944); and Special Orders No. 81, paragraph 1 (Extract), Headquarters 13th Replacement Control Depot, APO 638, 24 March 1944 — NAID 467138348, image 921 (NARA Roll 0726)
Confirmed — Unit record
April 21, 1944
Special Orders No. 23 — on the rolls of the 878th
A month after he joined, headquarters of the 86th Air Depot Group published an order listing its units and the men in them, and there he is under the heading 878TH SIG CO DEP AVN: “Pfc Richard Dobbins 19163400,” in a two-column list of the company’s men under Captain Karel E. Pearson. The page confirms his grade and his company a month on, and it names the parent organisation the 878th belonged to at Chilbolton.
Under the heading 878TH SIG CO DEP AVN, in the left-hand column: Pfc Richard Dobbins 19163400. The diagonal line across this block, and the strokes through individual names elsewhere on the page, are pen marks made on the original. The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.
Source: Special Orders No. 23, Headquarters 86th Air Depot Group, APO 149, 21 April 1944, continuation page — Catalog file unit NAID 469312916, image 1312 (NARA Roll 0612). The same page is filed in other units’ records: NAID 469289571, image 1848; NAID 469292504, image 1995; NAID 469293505, images 2001, 2940 and 2946; NAID 469299603, images 4257 and 4262; NAID 469312916, image 1318
Confirmed — Unit record
June 21, 1944
Promoted to Technician Fifth Grade
Fifteen days after the Normandy landings, the 878th promoted thirteen of its men, and Richard's name heads the list. He became a Technician Fifth Grade. The list begins on one page of the report and the sentence that says what the promotion was runs over onto the next: “Above 13 EM promoted to Techn Fifth gr 21 June 44.” Both pages are below.
The list opens with his name: 19163400 Dobbins Pfc. The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.The next page carries the sentence: “Above 13 EM promoted to Techn Fifth gr 21 June 44.”
Source: Morning Report — 878th Signal Company, Depot, Aviation, Station Chilbolton, Hants — Catalog file unit NAID 477771224, images 2081 and 2082 (NARA Roll 0460; June 1944)
Confirmed — Unit record
July 27, 1944
The company moves to Membury, Berkshire
The 878th packed up and changed stations. Its own morning report sets down the day in plain words: “27 July 44 Entire orgn, less Dets ‘A’ & ‘B’, left AAF Sta 404, 1330 hours. Arrived AAF Sta 466 1530 hours. Permanent change of stations.” The report records the move from Chilbolton to Membury in two hours. The company had 203 men on its rolls that day. These two pages name the company rather than Richard himself. The order below ties him to the move: nine days later he is transferred by name, and the headquarters that signed that order is the one at Membury.
Page 1: the station heading reads Membury Berks 51° 29′ N 1° 34′ W.Page 2, Record of Events: the whole organisation left AAF Station 404 at 1330 and reached AAF Station 466 at 1530. Signed Charles H. Mullen, Captain, Signal Corps.
Source: Morning Report — 878th Signal Company, Depot, Aviation, Station Membury, Berks — Catalog file unit NAID 481096310, images 2191 and 2192 (NARA Roll 0649; July 1944)
Confirmed — Unit record
August 5, 1944
Air Corps to Signal Corps — and a trade
Headquarters of the 6th Tactical Air Depot published Special Orders No. 183, and paragraph 2 transferred named men of the 878th from the Air Corps to the Signal Corps. His line reads “Tec 5 Richard J. Dobbins 19163400 (405) AC → SC.” The number in brackets is his specialty: 405, clerk-typist. He had enlisted into the Air Corps in 1942 and been a student at the Truax Field technical school, and from this order on the Army carried him in the Signal Corps, with clerk-typist as his recorded specialty. The order notes “No travel involved”: his branch changed and his company stayed the same.
The order also places him at Membury with his company. It describes the men as belonging to the 878th Signal Company, Depot (Aviation), 7th Air Depot Group, and the 7th was one of the two air depot groups that made up the 6th Tactical Air Depot at Membury.
Tec 5 Richard J. Dobbins 19163400 (405), transferred from branch AC to branch SC. The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.
Source: Special Orders No. 183, paragraph 2, Headquarters 6th Tactical Air Depot, APO 149, 5 August 1944 — Catalog file unit NAID 567643391, image 184 (NARA Roll 0798). Specialty number 405 per War Department TM 12-427, Military Occupational Classification of Enlisted Personnel
Confirmed — Unit record
September 25, 1944
France — the company north of Reims, and Richard taken sick
By late September the 878th had crossed the Channel into France, its station given as two miles north of Reims, Champagne. The entry directly above Richard's on this page cites an order of the 7th Air Depot Group dated 25 September 1944. The report of 26 September sets down what happened to him the day before: “Above EM dy to Sk Qrs (LD) 25 September 1944”. From duty to sick quarters, in line of duty. He is a Technician Fifth Grade, and the company counted 183 men that day.
19163400 Dobbins, Richard J. T/5 — “Above EM dy to Sk Qrs (LD) 25 September 1944.” Signed Charles H. Mullen, Captain, Signal Corps. The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.
Source: Morning Report — 878th Signal Company, Depot, Aviation, Station 2 miles north of Reims, Champagne, France — Catalog file unit NAID 569473187, image 807 (NARA Roll 0518; September 1944)
Confirmed — Unit record
September 29, 1944
Moved to the 213th Medical Dispensary
His own company’s report for this day says where he went: “Above EM sk qrs 7th Air Depot Group Dispensary trfd to 213th Med Dispensary (AVN) A-62.” The receiving unit’s paperwork picks him up. The 213th Medical Dispensary (Aviation), stationed outside Reims at Cormicy, writes him onto its own morning report: “19163400 Dobbins Richard J T/5 — Atchd fr 878th Sig Co.” Two clerks in two orderly rooms wrote down the same eight digits beside the same name on the same day.
The 878th, 29 September: 19163400 Dobbins, Richard J. T/5 — “sk qrs 7th Air Depot Group Dispensary trfd to 213th Med Dispensary (AVN) A-62.” The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.On the 213th Medical Dispensary's own report: 19163400 Dobbins Richard J T/5 — Atchd fr 878th Sig Co. The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.
Source: Morning Reports — 878th Signal Company, Depot, Aviation, Catalog file unit NAID 569473187, image 810 (NARA Roll 0518; 29 September 1944); and 213th Medical Dispensary (Aviation), Station Reims / Cormicy, France, NAID 569725919, image 3149 (NARA Roll 0578; 29 September 1944)
Confirmed — Unit record
October 5, 1944
Back to duty
Both units close the episode on the same day. The 213th Medical Dispensary releases him, “Reld fr Atchd fr 878th Sig Co”, and his own company writes him back on strength: “Ab sk LD 213th Med Dispensary to dy.” Absent sick, in line of duty, at the 213th Medical Dispensary, returned to duty. He had been away eleven days, from 25 September to 5 October 1944.
The 213th Medical Dispensary releases him: 19163400 Dobbins Richard J T/5 — Reld fr Atchd fr 878th Sig Co. The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.His own company, the same day: 19163400 Dobbins T/5 — Ab sk LD 213th Med Dispensary to dy. The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.
Source: Morning Reports — 213th Medical Dispensary (Aviation), Catalog file unit NAID 573788570, image 1315 (NARA Roll 0725); and 878th Signal Company, Depot, Aviation, NAID 570961481, image 2078 (NARA Roll 0116), both October 1944
Confirmed — Unit record
November 1, 1944
Louvemont, France — reduced to the grade of Private
The company had moved again, south-east to Louvemont, a village in the Haute-Marne about six miles south of Saint-Dizier. The report gives the station’s military map reference, vY 9197 in the Army’s Nord de Guerre grid, and that reference falls on this Louvemont. Its morning report names two men, Richard and Wright D. Taliaferro, and sets down: “Above 2 EM rd to gr of Pvt 1 November 1944.” Reduced to the grade of Private. The report gives no reason, and no other record of it has been found. This is the last of the unit records that names him.
19163400 Dobbins T/5 and 38403491 Taliaferro T/5 — “Above 2 EM rd to gr of Pvt 1 November 1944.” The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.
Source: Morning Report — 878th Signal Company, Depot, Aviation, 86th Air Depot Group, Station Louvemont, France — Catalog file unit NAID 576769473, image 851 (NARA Roll 0666; report of 5 November 1944)
Context
1944
A voice from the 878th
Our searches did not locate a published history of the 878th Signal Company, Depot, Aviation, but one of its men left a first-person account. In 2006 Jay H. Thomas, Jr., a Technician Fifth Grade of the 878th, recorded an interview about his wartime service for the Library of Congress, and anyone can listen to it.
He is on the same page of the same order as Richard. Special Orders No. 23 of 21 April 1944 lists the company alphabetically, and Pvt J. H. Thomas, Jr. 38463918 stands in the right-hand column of the block that carries Pfc Richard Dobbins 19163400 in the left. The Library of Congress catalogs Thomas under the 878th Signal Company and records his rank as Technician Fifth Grade.
In his interview, Thomas recalls the company's temporary operations at Reims and its telephone, telegraph and courier work. Richard's own morning reports put the 878th two miles north of Reims in those same weeks.
This is Thomas's account of his own service and provides unit context only. It does not establish that Richard performed the same duties.
The Veterans Administration’s index of his service gives 26 October 1945 as the day the Army released him, three years and one month after he enlisted at Los Angeles and five months after the war in Europe ended. The National Archives has digitized the Army’s morning reports only through December 1944, and the 878th’s reports for that month record no change for Richard. A quiet morning report does not prove that he had left the unit; it records changes rather than a daily roster. The index gives the date of his release but not his grade. The last grade documented in the unit records is Private, on 1 November 1944, after five months as a Technician Fifth Grade.
Source: VA Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem (BIRLS), date of release 26 October 1945
Confirmed — Record
December 1996
Richard James Dobbins passes away
Richard died in December 1996 at Pasadena, the city he was born in, aged 74. The Army had released him from active service fifty-one years earlier. This timeline is offered in his memory.
Source: Social Security Administration death record (NUMIDENT, National Archives Record Group 47) and VA Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem (BIRLS)
