![]() ![]() The blood chit was created with this scenario in mind-it is a notice written in the local language and carried by military personnel, identifying its bearer as friendly and asking for help. One of the greatest fears a soldier has is being lost or injured in a place where he or she does not speak the language and needs assistance to get back to their unit. The team recovered the engine numbers and serial plates of the carburetor and radio compass and noted that “A Chinese Flage Identification which was worn on this fliers jacket, number 12331, has been found.” ![]() ![]() Over a year later, the Changsha Search Team reported finding the grave of an unidentified pilot. After several followed a road away from the river, one of the planes crashed into a building and then skidded across the rice fields, breaking apart and burning. ![]() On June 29, 1944, 16 American planes were flying a mission against the Japanese along the Laodoho River in the Hunan Province in China. Preservation staff found this “blood chit” in the Official Military Personnel File of James Vurgaropulos. The long journey taken by this small silken scrap, called a “blood chit,” to the National Archives began when it fell from the sky. Accompanying documents in the file explained how very special it was. The piece of silk lay in the folder as if it were just another page in the military personnel record-with holes punched through to be held by the fasteners, just another page to be cleaned of mold and soot from the burned files from the disastrous 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center.īut this piece of cloth with its colorful silkscreen of a Chinese flag was clearly something different from everything else treated by the Paper Lab. In honor of Memorial Day, today’s blog post comes from Sara Holmes, supervisory preservation specialist, and Michael Pierce, preservation technician, both at the National Archives at St. ![]()
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