Need help understanding DD-214

I have just received copies of my late Grandfather's DD-214 in order to track down all of his awards and decorations for display with his flag. I am also prior military so I understand a little bit of what is on there but there are a few things that I just don't understand or can't find anything about it. I'm not sure if all of his medals are on this paperwork or if some awards were automatic during this time period so if you see anything that is not there that should please let me know. Any help that I can get is greatly appreciated. Here is what I have from his DD-214:

Dates of service: 29 Mar 1943 - 19 Dec 1945
Unit: Sq B 1105 AAFBU Miami Fld Fla
Military occupational specialty: AN 747
Military qualification and date: Carbine Exp Pistol MKM 5/4/44
Battles and Campaign: Rome-Arno
Decorations and Citations: One Bronze Star Ltr MTO 10 Nov 1944
Service outside U.S: Italy Departure date 1 July 1944, USA 6 June 1945 ( not sure why USA counts as outside U.S. and I don't know what date he left Italy)
Box 55 Remarks:
1. Lapel Button Issued
2. Eight days lost under AW 107 (read somewhere that this could mean he received punishment for providing a false statement?)
3. Auth VM WWII (i got this one), AT Ribbon (no idea what this is), EAME Ribbon (got this one), Good Conduct Medal (got this one).
4. ERC 22 Mar 1943 to 28 Mar 1943 (no idea what this means)
5. ASR 47 2 Sept 1945 (no idea)
6. Auth two Over Seas Bars(does this mean he rates two overseas ribbons?)

Also another thing that seems a little strange is that he has discharge papers that say Army of the United States but his or or service code is AC for what I believe is Air Corps since his paper is signed by a major in the Air Corps and his headstone at the national cemetery is Air Force. Is that right? Or should it be Army?

Once again thank you very much for your time and input. I want to do this for my Grandfather because he deserves it and I want to be as accurate as possible. Thank You.

 

His MOS of AN 747 makes him to be an aircraft mechanic which puts him with the Air Force which at that time was called the US Army Air Corps. Now I could be wrong about the code since he was a Major. I will research further.

AW 107 is an infraction against the articles of war. What he did I don't know but it counted against his time.

ASR could be Army Service Ribbon but don't know since it has a '47' after it.

ERC = I have seen references to 'inactive time' followed by ERC. Have not found a definition yet. Perhaps it is an inactive period. Was he injured?

As for the two Overseas Bars, that means he is entitled to this award twice, not wear two ribbons. There is usually some kind of device that is added to the ribbon annotating mulitple awards. Usually an oak leaf.

All I have for now. Trying to find the codes.

 

The ERC line refers to what is now called "Inactive Reserve." What happened was your grandfather was officially inducted into the US Army on 22 March 1943 but not expected to report for duty until 28 March 1943. This typically happens to everyone. The Army has to collect a certain number of men on a certain date at a recruit training depot to start them through bootcamp.
The start dates are fixed say, twice a month or something like that. The next report date is given to those who finished their induction and took the Oath between the last report date and the next.
I would expect ERC to mean something like "Earned Reserve Credit" or something similar for those days served but not on active duty.

The Italy line shows your grandfather left the US on 1 July 1944 for Italy and returned to the US on 6 June 1945.

The overseas service bars are small gold bars worn on the lower left sleeve sort of like service stripes on dress uniforms.

As far as his service branch goes for the US Army it works like this:

If you enlisted or were commissioned from an academy (eg., West Point) you were in the regular Army officially called "Army of the United States." If you were drafted or went through OCS or ROTC you normally were in the United States Army Reserve or USAR). National Guard members were noted as such in their records.
The US Army Air Corps would be the official branch of service like Infantry, Signals, Artillery, etc.
The Major who signed his discharge paperwork would have been normally his commanding officer or designated officer within his command. The Major would include his rank and branch on the signature and possibly note "by direction" if not the officer of record for signing discharges.
By the time your grandfather died the USAAC had become the USAF, thus the headstone showing the later even if it is not really completely correct. The USAAC / USAAF was the forerunner of the modern US Air Force.
Although you don't list his rank, I suspect he was enlisted. An Articles of War charge (the AW 107) is not uncommon on enlisted discharge forms but very rare on officer ones. These were handed out to enlisted in many units almost like weekend passes as a means of maintaining discipline.

I suspect the ASR is Active Service Release (ie., put into a Reserve status) but I'm not sure on that one.

 

First of all I want to thank everyone for their help so far. I forgot to put that my Grandfather's rank was PFC and he was not injured during his tour overseas. Thank you for clarifying that his headstone is correct because my Grandmother was really confused about that and I had no idea. I think I have a good understanding about his awards now except for the one that is listed as AT Ribbon. I have no idea what that is. Also, I know that in the Marine Corps we had badges for our rifle/pistol qualifications. Does the same go for him since he has carbine exp qual as well as pistol? Just curious. Well thank you to everyone for the help and any more info you can give me is greatly appreciated.

 

Hello there Robblob. Heres a little info on the US Army Qualification badges,
Marksmanship Qualification Badges

 

I know the USAF has marksmanship 'ribbons', not badges. As for the USAAF, don't know but I have not seen any uniforms of the era displaying the Army's badge

 

There is also the Army Air Force Technician Badge. But it was not awarded for weapons skills. The second Photo is of a AAF sergeant wearing a Marksman badge.

"The Army Air Force Technician Badge was authorized by AR 600-35 Change 10 issued January 11, 1943. To the basic badge was added a bar showing the particular qualification."

Army Air Force Technician Qualification Badges

 

My father-in-law's DD-214 has an American Theater ribbon listed (AT ribbon). It's the same as the American Campaign Medal but was only issued as a ribbon until after WWII. I hope this helps.

 

AT stands for American Theater. The ACTUAL andd OFFICIAL name for it is the American Campaign Medal, which was given to service members who were involved in Coastal Defense, Antisubmarine Duty, and REAL jobs like that, OR who spent a period of 12 months (often loosely interpreted) within the Continental US - usually in training, etc - before overseas deployment, AFTER Pearl Harbor (7 Dec 41.) There was another one called the American Defense Service Medal, given to anyone who was on active duty in the year or so BEFORE Pearl Harbor. These were the World War II equivalents of the National Defense Service Medal or perhaps the GWOT Service Medal (meaning you just happened to be in the military during a period of conflict and they handed you the medal - we used to call the NDSM the 'fire guard' medal, because anyone who did even a day or 2 of recruit training got one tossed to him.) Hope this helps.

 

ERC stands for Enlisted Reserve Corps. It was an organization of assignment for those who enlisted at the age of 17 and would be called to active duty after their 18th birthday. Many members were those who had achieved initial acceptance for future training as an Aviation Cadet.

https://books.google.com/books? ID=S9YDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PP10&lpg=PP10&dq=%22Air+Corps+enlisted+reserve+%22&source=bl&ots=nJQkrtRg0O&sig=ZlLV5Q0h9DPjDKwNuKew0ahD8L4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=7dFcVYHTBYSxsATu5oCAAQ&ved=0CDwQ6AEwCTgK#v=onepage&q=%22Air%20Corps%20enlisted%20reserve%20%22&f=false

AT stands for American Theater. The ribbon was awarded after one year of cumulative service in the American Theater.
http://www.militaryvetspx.com/amthcari.html

ASR stands for Advanced Service Rating Score. It consists of the number of "discharge points" accumulated to qualify for discharge fronm the serivce. It established priority. He had 47 points as of September 2, 1947
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Service_Rating_Score

I think you got answers for all the others long ago.

Ross Whistler