A little bit of history came my way, any WW2 buffs/researchers?

[WVneighbor]

I recently received some very valuable papers. My grandfather sent a V-Mail letter to the mother of his brothers friend.

Its dated, in his own handwriting, June 18, 1944!

Do we have any military researchers out there? My grandfather passed away a few years ago and the duty of fleshing out his military service has come to me.

And I don't know where to start!

What I do know, he was in B co. (battalion unknown) 7th Infantry Regiment. He was at Anzio, has 2 purple hearts and either 3 or 4 campaign ribbons.

[5711-Marine]

start here

http://www.archives.gov/veterans/evetrecs/index.html

you can file a request for military records as Next of Kin.

in the comments section type "full and complete service record"

The only caveat is his records may have been involved in the fire.

[Emptymag]

There's a small chance you could learn more here as well.
http://www.loc.gov/vets/

I knew enough info about my father in law to find what his battalion did, and where he served in Europe during the war.

I keep meaning to have my wife apply for the records, but have not done so yet.

If you find this type of thing interesting, here's what I learned about my father in law.
http://www.pafoa.org/forum/general-2...es-photos.html


Good luck in your search!

[Dredly]

A LOT of stuff was lost in the fire... My grandfather served on a ship in the pacific and the only thing I can find about him (even on the "ship website") is that he was injured and its just a passing mention of it.

Its a real shame that we could lose that kind of information on men who gave everything they had to this country.

[5711-Marine]

A LOT of stuff was lost in the fire... My grandfather served on a ship in the pacific and the only thing I can find about him (even on the "ship website") is that he was injured and its just a passing mention of it.

Its a real shame that we could lose that kind of information on men who gave everything they had to this country.

I agree.

My Great Uncle landed at Normandy on 6 June 1944 in the second wave with the 115th Infantry and was KIA. I requested his records and was told they were destroyed in the fire.

[mikepro8]

Try the Army Historical Foundation.
My brother works there, he is their graphics designer. He sends me cool stuff all the time before its published. All sorts of great research, articles, pics....

http://www.armyhistory.org/

Try to get ahold of someone there, they may be able to help you or at least send you in the right direction. They are located in Arlington, VA which isnt far from DC.

Bragging a little bit, but my brother introduced me once to General Abrams, who he seems to work with quite a bit,... not the one the tank was named after, but his son!

[Smalls]

A LOT of stuff was lost in the fire... My grandfather served on a ship in the pacific and the only thing I can find about him (even on the "ship website") is that he was injured and its just a passing mention of it.

Its a real shame that we could lose that kind of information on men who gave everything they had to this country.

Sorry to be asking a beginner question. But what is "The fire". or what happened?


And sorry to Necro an old thread. I love learning new things.

[556slinger]

I am currently trying to do the same thing. I am trying to find records for a sergeant but no luck so far. keep trying, i am

[Dredly]

Sorry to be asking a beginner question. But what is "The fire". or what happened?


And sorry to Necro an old thread. I love learning new things.

There was a massive fire at a gov't storage facility which resulted in TONS of paper records of WW1 and WW2 records being lost. I think they still know who served and when but the detailed records are gone.

http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/mil...fire-1973.html

As far as I know there was a large chunk of navy documents lost as well, or they just never got updated from the old paper to modern, when I made a few inquiries a few years ago about when my grandfather served and where I got nothing and was told "that information isn't available"

[Warpt762x39]

My mom was going through a box of papers my stepdad had given her to sort through. In it was a stack of very old papers that required some careful finesse to unfold.

They were my stepdads grandfathers WW1 draft and discharge papers along with his great grandfathers citizenship papers.

I'm going to have to do some research to see if we can find anymore info about his familys WW1 service.