G2G: Need help with US Coast Guard recognition please.

Question

Donald Ray Steele is a first for me.  Using the dates from the US Dept Veterans Affairs BIRLS file it would appear that Donald was career military, serving in Korea and Vietnam.  But then his Veteran's Gravesites info lists "Sfc Us Army World War II" and his enlistment on the 22 of Mar 1946, is cited as:

National Archives at College Park; College Park, Maryland, USA; Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, 1938-1946; NAID: 1263923; Record Group Title: Records of the National Archives and Records Administration, 1789-ca. 2007; Record Group: 64; Box Number: 15683; Reel: 392

Source Information

Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2005.

Lastly, according to Donald's obituary which was published in the Washington Times Herald in 2005, he had been in the National Guard for 29 years, retiring in 1972. He retired from the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division in 1982 after working there for 33 years.

Would someone be able to look at the veteran's recognitions that I added to to Donald's profile and correct them or improve on them so that they are accurate?  It appears Donald worked at a Naval installation concurrently to being in the National Guard so I'm completely in the dark regarding how to properly honor this gentleman's service to our country.  

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

I am not sure that he was in the USN. He was in the National Guard for 29 years and worked at the NSWC Crane Division (probably a civilian job) and the time probably overlapped.  He served in the Army during WWII. I don't see Coast Guard mentioned in the obit and I can't see the ancestry records.

I would remove the Vietnam Sticker. You can do a veteran recognition sticker for his National Guard service. 

{{Veteran Recognition
|badge-image=Military_Badges_and_Insignia-27.png
|nationality=United States
|branch=Army National Guard
|start-year=
|end-year=1972

|text=Served for 29 years
}}

You can use the records to fill in the start year.

I added the category for Indiana Army National Guard.

Comments

Thanks for your help, Natalie.  Reading my post I can see I was really confused.  You're right - army, not navy.  No coast guard.  Doing a little research I see Donald would have been working a civilian jog while in the National Guard.  

So now my confusion centers around the documents I cited.  Donald's gravesite, obit, and the U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records  all say that Donald fought in WWII, but his enlistment date was 1946 and stretched to 1956.  Wouldn't those years have corresponded with the Korean Conflict?  In the BIRLS info copied below the branch is army but the 2 enlistment periods do add up to the 29 years mentioned in the obit.  

Enlistment Branch	ARMY
Enlistment Date	20 Mar 1946
Discharge Date	5 Apr 1956
Enlistment Branch 1	ARMY
Enlistment Date 1	6 Apr 1956
Discharge Date 1	29 Aug 1972

So maybe what I need to do is remove both of the stickers and just do a veterans recognition for 29 years in the National Guard.