On November 15, 1945, just two weeks after George Edwin Farrar’s honorable discharge and separation, the Army’s Claims Division sent him a letter.  It outlined the instructions for reimbursement of personal property losses while in the service as long as the loss was within the regulations.  I wonder if my dad was able to claim the loss of his watch during the prisoners’ march across Germany, which he had to trade for bread.  Do you think trading an item in lieu of starvation was covered in the cited regulations?

November 15, 1945
Headquarters, Army Service Forces
Office of the Judge Advocate General
Washington 25, D. C.

Instructions for Presentation of Claims
(AR 25-100)

1. Army Regulations 25-100, 29 May 1945, provide a means whereby reimbursement may be obtained by military personnel and civilian employees of the War Department or of the Army for private property damaged, lost, destroyed, captured or abandoned in the service when the circumstances of the loss are within the purview of the cited regulations. (For further details see AR 25-100, 29 May 1945, obtainable at any post, camp, station or military establishment.)

2. A claim for private property lost in the service should be made on WD Form 30B, 1 June 1945, and submitted to the Commanding Officer of the organization to which the claimant belongs or with which he is serving if practicable, otherwise to the Commanding Officer of any post, camp, station or military establishment, if practicable the one nearest the point where investigation of the facts and circumstances can most conveniently be made. Claims may also be submitted to the Commanding General of any Service Command or any Air Technical Service Command, within the United States, its territories and possessions, or to any office of the Command Claims Service in any Theater of Operations or other command outside the continental limits of the United States. In any case where submission under the foregoing provisions is impracticable claims may be submitted direct to The Judge Advocate General, Washington 25, D. C.

3. Blank forms and assistance in the preparation of a claim may be obtained from the Claims Officer at the post, camp, station or other military establishment where the claim is submitted.

RALPH G. BOYD
Colonel, JAGD
Chief of Claims Division

© Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2014