Army Serial Numbers (ASN) are part of an official designation, and will appear in every military record, in which the name of the holder appears, i.e. in all documents — so, special care should be taken that the correct ASN be used at all times, since certain records are filed this way, and payments and/or allowances are often settled by Army Serial Number, and not by name — it is always used by servicemen.
We offer a Army Serial Number Generator to create an authentic ASN that uses the guidelines laid out below.
Regular Army (1940): start with digit 1, followed by a second digit (indicating Corps Area/Service Cd) (there were 9 Corps Area for military administrative purposes, and 4 Army Areas for strategic military purposes) 11130295, 13176244, 14130598, 16087357, 19005129
National Guard (1940): start with digits 20, followed by a third digit (indicating Corps Area/Service Cd) 20417243, 20468791, 20651726, 20900697, 20906536
Draftees (1940): start with digit 3, followed by a second digit (indicating Corps Area/Service Cd) 31130734, 31240869, 34834714, 35388430, 39407665 (these were draftees called up the Selective Training & Service Act)
Commissioned Officers (1921): start with prefix O, followed by hyphen + series of 1 > 6, even 7 digits (1921 box includes 1 to 99,999 – 1940 box starts with 23,000) O-57, O-742, O-3822, O-777657, O-1170276
Warrant Officers (1942): start with prefix W, followed or not by hyphen + series of 7 digits, starting with 21 such as W 2101199, W-2118310, W-2129700, W 2125908, W 2133860 (while most ID Tags start with first digits 21, other show different numbers, such as W-92186, W 901800, most probably Officers already commissioned between the war years, 1920-1930)
Flight Officers (1942): start with prefix T, followed by a series of digits T-80, T 1846, T-6367, T-136265, T 223076
Army Specialist Corps (1942): start with prefix S, followed by a series of digits S 1038451
Army Nurse Corps (1921): start with prefix N, followed by a series of 6 digits (box with group of 700.000) N 702927, N-782136, N 795100, N-795163
Hospital Dietitian + Physical Therapist (1942): HD start with prefix R, while PT start with prefix M, followed by a series of digits R or M
Contract Surgeon (1941): start with prefix CS, followed by a series of digits CS
WAC (1943): start with prefix L (officer) L-918042, A (soldier) A-205333 and V (W.O.) V-704827, followed by a series of 6 digits, of which the first indicated the Service
Army Army Areas/Service Commands:
First Army Area
First Corps Area (Maine-New Hampshire-Vermont-Massachusetts-Rhode Island-Connecticut) HQ=Boston, Mass.
Second Corps Area (New Jersey-Delaware-New York) HQ=Governors Island, N.Y.
Third Corps Area (Pennsylvania-Maryland-Virginia-District of Columbia) HQ=Baltimore, Md.
Second Army Area
Fifth Corps Area (Ohio-West Virginia-Indiana-Kentucky) HQ=Ft. Hayes, Ohio
Sixth Corps Area (Illinois-Michigan-Wisconsin) HQ=Chicago, Ill.
Third Army Area
Fourth Corps Area (North Carolina-South Carolina-Georgia-Florida-Alabama-Tennessee-Mississippi-Louisiana) HQ=Atlanta, Ga.
Eighth Corps Area (Texas-Oklahoma-Colorado-New Mexico-Arizona (partly) HQ= Ft. Sam Houston, Tex.
Fourth Army Area
Seventh Corps Area (Missouri-Kansas-Arkansas-Iowa-Nebraska-Minnesota-North Dakota-South Dakota) HQ=Omaha, Nebr.
Ninth Corps Area (Washington-Oregon-Idaho-Montana-Wyoming-Utah-Nevada-Arizona (partly)-California-Alaska (attached) HQ=Presidio of San Francisco, Calif.
There were also 4 other Departments (US overseas possessions): Hawaii, Panama Canal Zone, Puerto Rico and the Philippines (prior to their seizure by Japan)
Regular Army :
All serial numbers start with digit 1, while the second digit indicates Corps Area or Service Command .
The War Department allotted a sequence of 100,000 numbers to each “Department”, and a series of 1,000,000 numbers to each “Corps” or “Service Command” .
Hawaiian Department = range from 10,100,000 > 10,199,999
Panama Canal Department = range from 10,200,000 > 10,299,999
Philippine Department = range from 10,300,000 > 10,399,999
Puerto Rican Department = range from 10,400,000 > 10,499,999
First Corps Area = range from 11,000,000 > 11,999,999
Second Corps Area = range from 12,000,000 > 12,999,999
Third Corps Area = range from 13,000,000 > 13,999,999
Fourth Corps Area = range from 14,000,000 > 14,999,999
Fifth Corps Area = range from 15,000,000 > 15,999,999
Sixth Corps Area = range from 16,000,000 > 16,999,999
Seventh Corps Area = range from 17,000,000 > 17,999,999
Eighth Corps Area = range from 18,000,000 > 18,999,999
Ninth Corps Area = range from 19,000,000 > 19,999,999
National Guard :
All serial numbers start with digits 20, while the third digit indicates Corps Area or Service Command . The War Department allotted following ranges .
Hawaiian Department = range from 20,010,000 > 20,019,999
Puerto Rican Department = range from 20,020,000 > 20,029,999
First Corps Area = range from 20,100,000 > 20,199,999
Second Corps Area = range from 20,200,000 > 20,299,999
Third Corps Area = range from 20,300,000 > 20,399,999
Fourth Corps Area = range from 20,400,000 > 20,499,999
Fifth Corps Area = range from 20,500,000 > 20,599,999
Sixth Corps Area = range from 20,600,000 > 20,699,999
Seventh Corps Area = range from 20,700,000 > 20,799,999
Eighth Corps Area = range from 20,800,000 > 20,899,999
Ninth Corps Area = range from 20,900,000 > 20,999,999
Draftees :
All serial numbers start with digit 3, followed by the second digit indicating Corps Area or Service Command . The War Department allotted following ranges .
Hawaiian Department = range from 30,100,000 > 30,199,999
Panama Canal Department = range from 30,200,000 > 30,299,999
Philippine Department = range from 30,300,000 > 33,399,999
Puerto Rican Department = range from 30,400,000 > 30,499,999
First Corps Area = range from 31,000,000 > 31,999,999
Second Corps Area = range from 32,000,000 > 32,999,999
Third Corps Area = range from 33,000,000 > 33,999,999
Fourth Corps Area = range from 34,000,000 > 34,999,999
Fifth Corps Area = range from 35,000,000 > 35,999,999
Sixth Corps Area = range from 36,000,000 > 36,999,999
Seventh Corps Area = range from 37,000,000 > 37,999,999
Eighth Corps Area = range from 38,000,000 > 38,999,999
Ninth Corps Area = range from 39,000,000 > 39,999,999
WAC
First digit of all serial numbers already indicates the specific Service Command . The War Department allotted following ranges .
First Service Command = range from 100,000 > 199,999
Second Service Command = range from 200,000 > 299,999
Third Service Command = range from 300,000 > 399,999
Fourth Service Command = range from 400,000 > 499,999
Fifth Service Command = range from 500,000 > 599,999
Sixth Service Command = range from 600,000 > 699,999
Seventh Service Command = range from 700,000 > 799,999
Eighth Service Command = range from 800,000 > 899,999
Ninth Service Command = range from 900,000 > 999,999