Portrait of Robert Caldwell Finley in uniform
A World War II Service Record

Robert Caldwell Finley

Seaman First Class (S1c) · U.S. Naval Air Station, Trinidad, B.W.I.
Navy · Service no. 246 77 26
Service Number
246 77 26
Rank
Seaman First Class (S1c)
Final Unit
U.S. Naval Air Station, Trinidad, B.W.I.
Theater
Caribbean — Trinidad Sector, Caribbean Sea Frontier
This timeline reconstructs Robert's World War II service from the muster rolls, reports of changes and station records held by the National Archives, searched by service number. Each entry cites its source; items marked Newly discovered were recovered from the records.

Map of Service

Route reconstructed from confirmed locations.

Map of Robert Caldwell Finley's documented WWII service route

Service stops

  1. Wheeling, W. Va.born 21 January 1927
  2. Norfolk, Va.Receiving Station, 2 Feb 1945
  3. Trinidad, B.W.I.U.S. Naval Air Station, 1945-46
  4. Pensacola, Fla.Naval School of Photography, 1946
  5. San Diego, Calif.Attack Squadron 12A, 1947-48
  6. London, Englandtemporary duty, May 1948

Route notes

  • 2 → 3Sailed 12 Mar 1945, USS Merak
  • 3 → 4Detached 21 May 1946
  • 4 → 5February 1947
First time here?

How to read this service timeline

This page brings together records created for different purposes. The labels below tell you what kind of evidence supports each entry; open either guide when a record or military term is unfamiliar.

Confirmed — Service record

A personal military record supports the entry.

Confirmed — Unit record

A record created by his unit names him or documents the unit’s activity.

Context

Helpful background, clearly separated from personal evidence.

Newly discovered

Information recovered during this research, rather than supplied at the start.

How to read a muster roll and a Report of Changes

The Navy did not keep Morning Reports; that was an Army form. A ship or a shore station filed two things instead. A muster roll listed everyone attached to it at the end of a quarter. A Report of Changes listed only what changed that month: who arrived, who left, who was promoted, who went home.

Both forms come in two halves, printed one above the other on the same page. The upper half gives names, service numbers and rates. The lower half gives what happened. The two halves are joined by the line number, and the service number is repeated in both, so an entry can be tied to one man twice over.

REPORT OF CHANGES · SAMPLE
1Of the station or ship
U.S. Naval Air Station, Trinidad, B.W.I.
2For the month ending
1st day of October, 1945
320   FINLEY, Robert Caldwell   246 77 26   S2c
4USN   5C.R.   615   7To S1c. Auth: BuPers C/L 297-44 of 9/30/44.
In plain English Robert Caldwell Finley, service number 246 77 26, then rated Seaman Second Class, was advanced to Seaman First Class on the 15th of the month, under a Bureau of Naval Personnel circular letter.
  1. 1Station or ship: the command filing the report. Shore stations were entered on a form printed for ships, which is why a naval air station reads as “of the U.S.S.”
  2. 2Period: “for the month ending 1st day of October” means the September report. Reading that as October moves every date on the page by a month.
  3. 3Line number, name, service number and rate, from the upper half of the form.
  4. 4Branch of service: USN is the regular Navy. USNR and V-6 are the Naval Reserve, which is how most wartime volunteers were entered.
  5. 5Change: received, transferred, or a change of rating.
  6. 6Day of the month the change took effect.
  7. 7Description and authority: where he went or what he became, and the order that directed it.
REC
received
TRAN
transferred
C.R.
change of rating
Auth
authority
BuPers
Bureau of Naval Personnel
C/L
circular letter
ALNAV
all-Navy order
RS
receiving station
NAS
naval air station
NTS
naval training school
PSC
personnel separation center
NORVA
Norfolk, Virginia
B.W.I.
British West Indies
Common naval and research terms
Service number
The number that tells one sailor apart from every other man of the same name. Navy numbers of this period run to seven digits and were written in three groups, as 246 77 26. It is not a Social Security number, and it is not an Army Serial Number. The searching behind this page was done on the number, never on the name.
Muster roll
A quarterly list of everyone attached to a ship or shore station. It shows that a man was there. It does not say what he did.
Report of Changes
A monthly return listing only the men whose status changed. This is where arrivals, transfers and promotions are dated.
Rate and rating
The Navy’s words for what the Army calls rank and job. A rate is the pay grade, such as Seaman Second Class (S2c) or Seaman First Class (S1c). A rating is the trade, such as Photographer’s Mate (PH). A Chief Photographer’s Mate is written PHC.
USN, USNR and V-6
USN is the regular Navy, entered for a fixed term. USNR is the Naval Reserve, and V-6 was its general-service wartime class: volunteers enrolled for the duration of the war. The distinction is printed beside each man’s name.
Supernumerary
A man carried on a station’s books without filling one of its billets. At a training school it is the word for a student.
Navy number (fleet post office)
An address, not a unit. “Navy 117” was the fleet post office serving the naval air station at Trinidad, so an order naming it is naming a destination.
OMPF, the official personnel file
The service member’s own file, held by the National Archives at St. Louis. It is the fullest single record of a naval career — every rate, every station, every set of orders — and it can be requested.
Station
The ship or shore command that filed a record. It places the command; the man’s own line places him.
Candidate and confirmed
An entry found by name alone stays a candidate until a record carrying his service number agrees with it. This page says which is which, and never quietly promotes one to the other.
Source citation
The note beneath each entry naming the record it rests on: the National Archives file unit, the page image, and the line.

Service Timeline

15 min
Confirmed — Record
January 21, 1927

Born in Wheeling, Ohio County, West Virginia

Robert Caldwell Finley is born in Wheeling, Ohio County, West Virginia.
Source: Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS file, record for FINLEY, ROBERT CALDWELL, date of birth 21 January 1927 — the only Finley born on that date in the file's 18,536,937 rows; birthplace from his obituary, Timothy E. Ryan Home For Funerals, Toms River, New Jersey.
Context
Before February 1945

Joining the Navy

Robert turned eighteen on 21 January 1945. Twelve days later the Navy's own paperwork puts him at Norfolk, already in uniform. The records we examined do not say where or when he signed on or where he did his recruit training, so this page gives no date for it. Those details are in his official personnel file, which survives at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis.

Beside every man's name the Navy recorded his branch of service. Most of the men entered around him at Trinidad read V-6, the Naval Reserve classification held by most wartime volunteers. His reads USN, the regular Navy: an enlistment for a set term of years rather than for the duration of the war.

We read the January and February 1945 reports of the Navy's training centre at Bainbridge, Maryland line by line. Four other Finleys appear in those pages; Robert C. is not among them.
Source: Branch-of-service column, Report of Changes, U.S. Naval Air Station, Trinidad, B.W.I., month ending 31 March 1945 — NARA RG 24, series 594996, file unit NAID 127166157, page 00789, lines 19-21. Bainbridge searched and not found: Naval Training Center Bainbridge, NARA RG 24, series 594996, file unit NAID 185356642, pages 00276 and 01261 — the FIKE-to-FINN run on both months' Reports of Changes.
Confirmed — Unit record
February 2, 1945

Norfolk, Virginia: the first record that names him

This is the earliest document we have that puts Robert Finley in one place on one date. The Receiving Station at the Naval Operating Base, Norfolk, logged him in on 2 February 1945, sent over from the naval air station on the same base. A receiving station was a holding and forwarding depot: men waited there for orders and for a ship. Newly discovered.
scanned record
The whole sheet: Report of Changes, RS NOB Norfolk, Va., page 270, for the period ending 28 February 1945. He is line 26 in both halves — FINLEY ROBERT C · S2C · 246 77 26 in the upper panel, and USN · REC · NAS NOB NORVA · 2/02/45 in the lower one. Four other Finleys share this page, each with a different number, which is why the research is done by service number and never by name. The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.
Source: Report of Changes, U.S. Navy Receiving Station, Norfolk, Virginia, February 1945 — NARA RG 24, series 594996, file unit NAID 184795931, page 00272, line 26.
Confirmed — Unit record
March 12, 1945

Sailed from Norfolk aboard USS Merak

His transfer line names both the ship and where he was going: USS Merak, bound for Navy 117. A Navy number of that kind is a fleet post office, an address rather than a unit, and the next card shows which address this one was: ten days later the naval air station at Trinidad logs him in. He travelled as a passenger; he was not a member of the ship's company.

Merak was a stores ship. Bethlehem Shipbuilding built her in 1932 for the United Fruit Company as the refrigerated banana carrier Veragua, with berths for more than a hundred passengers, and the Navy acquired her in March 1942. From February 1945, the Navy's history says, she “replenished ships and bases from Iceland to Trinidad,” and it calls her “a very active durable transporter of men and supplies.” Newly discovered.

The ship's own deck log would describe the passage. The Navy's digitized logs for Merak end on 31 March 1944, a year before this voyage, so they hold no record of it.
scanned record
Report of Changes, RS NOB Norfolk, Va., page 325, for the period ending 31 March 1945. He is line 13: FINLEY ROBERT C · S2C · 246 77 26 in the upper panel, and USN · TRAN · NAVY 117 V USS. MERAK · 3/12/45 in the lower one. The February sheet above writes the ship out in full on another man's line — USS MERAK AF 21 — which is how we know which Merak this was. The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.
Source: Report of Changes, U.S. Navy Receiving Station, Norfolk, Virginia, March 1945 — NARA RG 24, series 594996, file unit NAID 184796949, page 00333, line 13. The ship: Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Merak II (AF-21), Naval History and Heritage Command — https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/m/merak-ii.html ; refrigeration and passenger berths: USS Merak (AF-21), Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Merak_(AF-21)
Confirmed — Unit record
March 22, 1945

Reported aboard U.S. Naval Air Station, Trinidad

Ten days out of Norfolk he was logged in at Trinidad. The entry reads “From RS NORVA for duty.” He was eighteen years and two months old. The war in the Pacific still had five months to run. Newly discovered.
scanned record
Report of Changes of U.S.S. Naval Air Station, Trinidad, B.W.I., for the month ending 31st day of March, 1945. Shore stations were entered on a form printed for ships, which is why it reads “of U.S.S.” He is line 21: FINLEY, Robert Caldwell · 246 77 26 · S2c above, and USN · REC · 22 · From RS NORVA for duty below. Lines 19 and 20 are two other men off the same draft, both entered V6 where his reads USN. The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.
Source: Report of Changes, U.S. Naval Air Station, Trinidad, B.W.I., month ending 31 March 1945 — NARA RG 24, series 594996, file unit NAID 127166157, page 00789, line 21.
Context
1941 – 1945

What the station at Trinidad was for

The place he had been sent to was part of Naval Operating Base, Trinidad, one of the bases the United States built on British territory under the 1940 destroyers-for-bases agreement. The air station was commissioned on 1 October 1941; a year later Trinidad had become a complete naval operating base with a section base, net, supply and fuel depots, a hospital, a degaussing range, a radio station and ship-repair facilities.

The Navy's own construction history describes the island as “commanding a vulnerable approach to the Panama Canal and the South American trade routes.” The Navy built the air station with room for five squadrons of patrol planes.

This card is general history of the station, included so the records above make sense. It is not a statement about what Robert himself did there — the muster rolls record where he was and what he was rated, not his duties.
Source: Building the Navy's Bases in World War II, Bureau of Yards and Docks, chapter 18 (“Bases in South America and the Caribbean Area, Including Bermuda”) — https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/Building_Bases/bases-18.html
Confirmed — Unit record
Quarter ending March 31, 1945

On the muster roll: “FINLEY, Robert Caldwell · 246 77 26 · S2c”

The quarterly muster roll of the station's crew carries him in full, with the service number that identifies him in every other record on this page. He is rated Seaman Second Class.

This entry is what establishes that he served in the Second World War. The Veterans Administration's index records him as entering the Navy on 1 January 1947 and does not mark him as a wartime veteran. The muster roll shows him at an overseas naval air station in March 1945, so the 1947 date most likely records a later re-enlistment.

The roll for the previous quarter was checked as well, and he is not on it: the names there run straight from FINDLEY, Hugh Hamilton to FISSEL, William Edward, with no line between them where his would belong. The two rolls close the window from both sides. Newly discovered.
scanned record
Muster Roll of the Crew of the U.S. Naval Air Station, Trinidad, B.W.I., for the quarter ending 31st March, 1945. He is in the F run: FINLEY, Robert Caldwell · 246 77 26 · S2c, between FINDLEY, Hugh Hamilton and FISSEL, William Edward. The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.
scanned record
The quarter before, ending December 1944 — and he is not on it. Look at the same F run: FINDLEY, Hugh Hamilton is followed straight by FISSEL, William Edward, with no line between them. He had not yet arrived. This is the negative that closes the window from the other side.
Source: Muster Roll of the Crew, U.S. Naval Air Station, Trinidad, B.W.I., quarter ending 31 March 1945 — NARA RG 24, series 594996, file unit NAID 127166157, page 00805; the negative check is page 00745, the muster roll for the quarter ending December 1944.
Confirmed — Unit record
September 15, 1945

Advanced to Seaman First Class

Two weeks after the surrender of Japan, the station advanced him from Seaman Second Class to Seaman First Class on the authority of a Bureau of Naval Personnel circular letter. It is the first promotion of his that we have found. Newly discovered.
scanned record
The heading reads “for the month ending 1st day of OCTOBER, 1945”, which is the Navy's way of dating the September report. He is line 20: FINLEY, Robert Caldwell · 246 77 26 · S2c in the upper panel — his rate as it stood at the last report — and in the lower panel USN · C.R. · 15 · To S1c. Auth: BuPers C/L 297-44 of 9/30/44. The line below his is another man, a reservist, going to Bainbridge for discharge. The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.
Source: Report of Changes, U.S. Naval Air Station, Trinidad, B.W.I., 1945 — NARA RG 24, series 594996, file unit NAID 127166157, page 00887, line 20.
Confirmed — Unit record
Quarter ending January 1, 1946

Still at Trinidad: the new year, 1946

The quarterly muster roll for the period ending 1 January 1946 carries him again, now rated Seaman First Class.
scanned record
Muster Roll of the Crew of the U.S.S. Naval Air Station, Trinidad, B.W.I., for the quarter ending 1 January 1946. In the F run: FINLEY, Robert Caldwell · 246 77 26 · S1c. The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.
Source: Muster Roll of the Crew, U.S. Naval Air Station, Trinidad, B.W.I., quarter ending 1 January 1946 — NARA RG 24, series 594996, file unit NAID 127166157, page 00919.
Context
March 1945 – March 1946

Wartime service medals

His documented service meets the published rules for two medals. The World War II Victory Medal went to every member of the armed forces on active duty between 7 December 1941 and 31 December 1946. The American Campaign Medal went to Navy men who served thirty days or more ashore at a station outside the continental United States within the American Area, for service up to 2 March 1946. His time at Trinidad falls inside that window for almost a year.

The rolls we used do not list awards. These are medals his service qualified him for under the Navy's rules; his personnel file or discharge would show what he received.
Source: World War II Victory Medal, Naval History and Heritage Command — https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/heritage/awards/service-campaign/world-war-ii-victory-medal.html ; American Campaign Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Awards Manual (1953), part IV — https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/n/navy-mc-awards-manual-rev1953/pt4-campaign-service-medals.html
Confirmed — Unit record
May 21, 1946

Ordered to photography school

Trinidad detached him on 21 May 1946 to the Naval Training School (Photography) at NAS Pensacola, Florida, “for instructions”, under a transfer order from Commander, Air Force, Atlantic Fleet. His tour at Trinidad had run fourteen months.

The same page shows what was going on around him. The lines either side of his are men being transferred out for discharge under ALNAV 131-46 and ALNAV 76-46, the orders that sent the wartime reservists home; they are entered as USNR. He is entered as USN, the regular Navy, and his line sends him to school to learn a trade. According to his obituary he worked as a Navy motion-picture photographer for forty-five years. Newly discovered.
scanned record
Report of Changes of U.S.S. Naval Air Station, Trinidad, B.W.I., for the month ending 1st day of June 1946. He is line 29: FINLEY, Robert C. · 246-77-26 · S1c above, and below, USN · TRAN · 5/21/46 · To NTS (Photo) NAS Pensacola Fla. for instructions. Auth: ComAirLant Trans Order No. 70-46 dtd 5/6/46. Read the column of entries around his: line after line of USNR men going to separation centres for discharge under ALNAV 131-46, 76-46 and 40-46. His is the one that goes to a school. The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.
Source: Report of Changes, U.S. Naval Air Station, Trinidad, B.W.I., May 1946 — NARA RG 24, series 594996, file unit NAID 127166157, page 00965, line 29 (authority: ComAirLant Transfer Order 70-46 dated 6 May 1946); length of career from his obituary, Timothy E. Ryan Home For Funerals, Toms River, New Jersey.
Confirmed — Unit record
May – July 1946

Naval School of Photography, Pensacola

The school's records carry him on two sheets. The first, a monthly changes sheet with Supernumeraries (the school's word for its students) written across the top, spells him out in full, with his service number and where he had come from: FINLEY, Robert Caldwell · S1c · Rec. U.S. NAS, Trinidad, B.W.I. · 246 77 26. The day column reads 25. The month on that sheet's heading is blurred, but the sheet comes before the July report in the roll and the day column elsewhere reaches 31, so the likeliest reading is 25 May 1946, four days after Trinidad let him go.

The name and number together settle who this is. Of the 18,536,937 rows in the Veterans Administration's index, exactly one Finley was born on 21 January 1927, and that row carries the middle name Caldwell.

Most of the men listed around him had arrived from the training centre at Jacksonville. He came from Trinidad.

The second sheet, the report of changes for the period ending 21 July 1946, carries him as FINLEY Robert C · 246 77 26 · S1, and its lower half records on his line a deck court award of thirty days' extra police duties, approved on 20 July 1946. A deck court was the Navy's lowest court, and extra police duties meant extra work details. It is the ordinary end of a minor disciplinary matter, and it is on his line, so it is on this page. The record does not say what it was for. Newly discovered.
scanned record
Muster Roll, NATechTraCen, Naval School, Photography, NAS Pensacola, Fla., monthly changes, with Supernumeraries written across the top by hand. He is line 19: FINLEY, Robert Caldwell · S1c · Rec. U.S. NAS, Trinidad, B.W.I. · 25 · 246 77 26. Nearly every other man on the sheet was received from Jacksonville or Great Lakes. The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.
scanned record
Report of Changes of U.S.S. NATechTraCen, NAS, Pensacola, Fla., for the month ending 21st day of July 1946. He is line 27: FINLEY Robert C · 246 77 26 · S1 in the upper panel, and in the lower panel the deck court award described above. The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.
Source: Muster roll (monthly changes, “Supernumeraries”), Naval School, Photography, NATechTraCen, NAS Pensacola, Florida, 1946, page 00829, line 19; and Report of Changes, NATechTraCen, NAS Pensacola, month ending 21 July 1946, page 00842, line 27 — NARA RG 24, series 594996, file unit NAID 191573816.
Context
1947

Staying in the Navy

The Veterans Administration's index gives 1 January 1947 as his date of entry into the Navy. The index uses the first of January for many men whose exact day was not recorded, so treat only the year as reliable. The muster rolls above show him already serving two years earlier, so this entry most likely records a re-enlistment rather than a beginning. He stayed in the Navy, and when the next record picks him up in February 1947 he is arriving from Pensacola.
Source: Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS file, record for FINLEY, ROBERT CALDWELL, date of birth 21 January 1927 (field: date entered service).
Confirmed — Unit record
February 23–27, 1947

Attack Squadron Twelve A, San Diego

In February 1947 the Navy sent him to the West Coast. Commander Fleet Air, West Coast logged him in on 23 February, arriving from the Naval Air Technical Training Center at Pensacola, and four days later passed him on to Attack Squadron Twelve A (VA-12A). The squadron's daily personnel diary has him reporting for duty on 27 February 1947, rated S1PhoM: a Seaman First Class training in the photographer's mate rating.

VA-12A flew TBM Avenger torpedo bombers from NAS San Diego in Carrier Air Group 11. It had fought the Pacific war as Torpedo Squadron Eleven and took its new name in November 1946. Newly discovered.
scanned record
Muster Roll, Flag Adm Unit CFWC, monthly changes, period ending 1 March 1947. His two lines: FINLEY ROBERT C · S1PHOM · 1 NATTC PENSACOLA · 23 · 2467726 (received) and FINLEY ROBERT C · S1PHOM · 2 VA 12A · 27 · 2467726 (transferred). Three other Finleys sit just above him. The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.
scanned record
Daily Personnel Diary, Attack Squadron Twelve (Able), 27 February 1947. Entry 083: FINLEY, Robert C · 246 77 26 · S1PHOM · RDUT · From: CFWC. AUTH: CFWC Ser. 1-1114 of 25 Feb. 1947. The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.
Source: Muster roll (monthly changes, period ending 1 March 1947), Flag Administrative Unit, Commander Fleet Air, West Coast, General Detail — NARA RG 24, series 594996, file unit NAID 190602293, page 00122. Daily Personnel Diary, Attack Squadron Twelve (Able), 27 February 1947 — NARA RG 24, series 594996, file unit NAID 189773541, page 00246, entry 083. The squadron: Dictionary of American Naval Aviation Squadrons, vol. 1, VA-115 entry, pp. 181-184, Naval History and Heritage Command — https://www.history.navy.mil/content/dam/nhhc/research/histories/naval-aviation/dictionary-of-american-naval-aviation-squadrons-volume-1/pdfs/Dict-of-Amer-Avia-Sq-v1.pdf
Confirmed — Unit record
May 15, 1947

Photographer's Mate Third Class

The squadron advanced him to Photographer's Mate Third Class on 15 May 1947, his first rating as a photographer. His line is one of eight advancements the squadron's clerk entered together, all under the same Bureau of Naval Personnel circular letter. Newly discovered.
scanned record
Daily Personnel Diary, Attack Squadron Twelve (Able), 3 June 1947. Entry 216: FINLEY, Robert C · 246 77 26 · S1PHOM · CRA · PhoM3 on 5-15-47. AUTH BuPers C/L 191-46. The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.
Source: Daily Personnel Diary, Attack Squadron Twelve (Able), entries of 3 June 1947 — NARA RG 24, series 594996, file unit NAID 189773541, page 00271, entry 216.
Context
October 1947 – June 1948

His squadron's world cruise

From October 1947 to June 1948 Attack Squadron Twelve A made a world cruise with its air group. It flew from NAS Barbers Point, Hawaii, until the end of 1947, embarked in the aircraft carrier USS Valley Forge (CV-45) in January 1948, and came home in June. The squadron's history shows its Avengers on the carrier's deck leaving Portsmouth, England.

Robert's name stays on the squadron's daily diary through those months, and in May 1948 the squadron lends him to an office in London (next card), so he very likely made the voyage. We have not seen him named in the carrier's own records.
Source: Dictionary of American Naval Aviation Squadrons, vol. 1, VA-115 entry, pp. 181-184, Naval History and Heritage Command — https://www.history.navy.mil/content/dam/nhhc/research/histories/naval-aviation/dictionary-of-american-naval-aviation-squadrons-volume-1/pdfs/Dict-of-Amer-Avia-Sq-v1.pdf ; his entries in the squadron's Daily Personnel Diary, October 1947 to June 1948 — NARA RG 24, series 594996, file unit NAID 189773541, pages 00311, 00327, 00334, 00343, 00355, 00378 and 00381.
Confirmed — Unit record
May 8–12, 1948

Three days in London

On 8 May 1948 the squadron sent him on temporary additional duty to CINCNELM, the Commander in Chief, U.S. Naval Forces, Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, at 20 Grosvenor Square, London. The entry reads “Public Information for a period of THREE (3) days.” On 12 May the diary logs him back on duty with the squadron.

By then the rolls wrote his rating as AF3, aviation photographer's mate, third class. The entry does not say what he photographed in London; a photographer lent to a public-information office was most likely there to take pictures for the Navy's press work. Newly discovered.
scanned record
Daily Personnel Diary, 8 May 1948. Entry 229: FINLEY Robert C · 246 77 26 · AF3 · CCAT · to ATAD CINCNELM, 20 Grosvenor Square, London, England – Public Information for a period of THREE (3) days. The typist wrote “Gresvener” and “Lenden.” The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.
scanned record
Daily Personnel Diary, 12 May 1948. Entry 230: FINLEY Robert C · 246 77 26 · AF3 · CCAT · to DUT from CINCNELM, 20 Grosvenor Square, London, England this date. The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.
Source: Daily Personnel Diary, Attack Squadron Twelve (Able), 8 and 12 May 1948 — NARA RG 24, series 594996, file unit NAID 189773541, page 00377, entry 229 (authority: CinC, Naval Forces, Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, dispatch 070959Z of May 1948), and page 00378, entry 230.
Confirmed — Unit record
September 16, 1948

Aviation Photographer's Mate Second Class

In July 1948 the squadron took a new number, Attack Squadron 115. On 16 September 1948 VA-115 advanced him from AF3 to AF2, aviation photographer's mate, second class. It is the highest rate we found for him in official records. Newly discovered.
scanned record
Daily Personnel Diary, Attack Squadron One Hundred Fifteen, 16 September 1948. Entry 316: FINLEY Robert C · 246 77 26 · AF3 · CRA · To AF2 this date. AUTH: BuPers C/L 191-46. The yellow is ours — it marks his name and service number on the sheet.
Source: Daily Personnel Diary, Attack Squadron One Hundred Fifteen, 16 September 1948 — NARA RG 24, series 594996, file unit NAID 189773541, page 00404, entry 316; a later undated squadron personnel listing in the same file unit, page 00428, carries him as FINLEY ROBERT C, 2467726, AF2. Redesignation: Dictionary of American Naval Aviation Squadrons, vol. 1, VA-115 entry, pp. 181-184, Naval History and Heritage Command — https://www.history.navy.mil/content/dam/nhhc/research/histories/naval-aviation/dictionary-of-american-naval-aviation-squadrons-volume-1/pdfs/Dict-of-Amer-Avia-Sq-v1.pdf
Context
1960

Chief Photographer's Mate (probable)

The National Association of Naval Photography publishes rosters of advancement to the chief photographer ratings. Its list of men advanced to Chief Photographer's Mate carries “Finley, R.” under the year 1960. He does not appear on the association's Senior Chief or Master Chief lists. A second, separate association document — its master list of Navy photographers — carries “PHC R. C. FINLEY USN(RET)”.

Read together, the two documents point to one career: advanced to Chief Photographer's Mate in 1960, and retired as a Chief. That fits the rates the official records do show: Photographer's Mate Third Class in 1947 and Second Class in 1948.

We show this as probable rather than proven. The rosters give initials only, and nothing printed on them ties the entries to this Robert Caldwell Finley beyond the initials and the rating. His official personnel file would confirm it.
Source: National Association of Naval Photography, PHC advancement roster 1944-2005, p.2, and master photographer list (Photolist, July 2026), p.25 — https://navyphoto.net/wp/
Confirmed — Record
October 31, 2017

Robert Caldwell Finley passes away

He died at home in Toms River, New Jersey, aged 90. He had lived there since 1952 and was buried at Ocean County Memorial Park. His obituary records forty-five years as a motion-picture photographer for the Navy, and membership of the Fleet Reserve Association at Lakehurst and of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

This timeline is offered in his memory.
Source: Obituary, Timothy E. Ryan Home For Funerals, Toms River, New Jersey (https://www.ryanfuneralhome.com/obituary/Robert-Finley); date of death corroborated by the Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS file.