My Uncle was on the Yorktown at Midway and survived. I only met him once but never spoke much about his experience. I have been told that he did fly but was not a pilot. How can I find out his rank and duty? Any help appreciated.
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If he flew but was not a pilot he was likely the rear gunner on a SBD Dauntless dive bomber. (Technically could have also been on a TDB Devastator, but since he survived Midway probably not!)
Assuming he just served in the Navy during WW2 (i.e. didn’t have a long career past the mid-1950s) his full service record is available as a historic document through the National Archives Military Personnel Records Center in St. Louis.
If you’re on Ancestry.com they have extensive but incomplete Navy muster rolls for WW2. If you don’t already have an account and don’t want to pay to dive into genealogy there, your local public library might provide free Ancestry.com access to its patrons. The Navy muster rolls are also on Fold3.com, which is owned by Ancestry but requires a separate subscription. However, Fold3 has free access weekends a couple times each year. Depending on when he died and where he was buried, Ancestry.com may also have his BIRLS Death File and/or Veteran Headstone Application which would provide some basic service info (dates of enlistment and discharge).
If the newspaper for your area is on newspapers.com or another online newspaper database you could search for his name there. Depending on how common his name was and how large the area was there’s a fair chance he will get mentioned during or soon after WW2.
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