How do I find a crew list for the aircraft carriers in WW2?

Question

I would like to find out which carrier my grandpa was on. It was most likely in 1942. His name is Elvis Smethers and he lived in Tx before being stationed in Long Beach Ca.

Thanks in advance for all your answers

Answer 1

There are no crew lists available on the web. And, in 1942, we had nine aircraft carriers. They ranged from USS Langley to USS Essex. The source below is a link which can be searched, ship by ship, to determine if there is a reunion group you can contact to see if anyone remembers your grandfather.  

Answer 2

You need the ship's name most ships you can look up on the web and find the roster.  

Answer 3

You most likely can't. There's no big database in the sky for information like that.

All of thier records were on paper back then. Most of those records were destroyed either in battle, when the ship decomissioned, or as a matter of just cleaning out old files.

In addition to that problem, guys swtiched ships all the time back then.

For example, if your ship got sunk then you became part of the crew of the ship that picked you up. It's very possible that someone was on a ship for several months, but there was no record of them being there.

Another problem you will face is that there were 3 types of carriers during WWII (CVA, CVL, and CVE). It wasn't like today when there is only 12. In 1942, there were TONS of carriers (no pun intended).

You would have better luck talking to family members and find more facts about when and where he was then try researching what ships were there at that time. Then going to some of the reunion website and asking around to see if anyone knows him.