"Uncle Jasper Was a Commando" Topic

Bill; If you can get a copy of his WWII discharge papers it should list the date that he received his wounds and general location.

The form at the time was AGO Form 53-55 which is the daddy of the current DD-214….

I wonder how I would do that…

Bill,

Many Military records are archived in St Louis at the National Archives. link

Unfortunately there was a fire in 1973 (i think) and 80% of US Army files were destroyed. But, as I am currently research my Great Uncles WWII service as a Medic in the 811th TD Battalion, they did turn up his discharge papers and his VA Index card. Lots of great info!

I believe they require research to be done on site, but you can hire someone to get it for you. Example company below and I have not used this one.

goldenarrowresearch.com

Since you know his unit another thing to look for are the units "Morning Reports" which will often show what area they were in and any events like wounds received in action and promotions.

If you have any other questions feel free to message me!

Bill,

I work less than a few miles from the NARA building and I have already gone up there to get records for my own grandparents. Louis was in the 8th ID as a medic. It was through those records I saw where he got two bronze stars. My other grandfather, James, was in the Navy and the records they had on him went into well over 100 pages of data. They even copied his picture which was in his file to a CD for me for just a few bucks.

Barenaked is right in that over 70 percent of the US Army records were destroyed by fire, but in many cases, files were built back up with documents from the veteran themselves. This was the case with Louis. All of the records I got to touch were actually his before he sent them to NARA.

As such, if you would like for me to head up there one day and drop the request to get the information, I'd be happy to do so. I've already been trained in their system and again, it is minutes from my work. No big deal to me and I admit, I love this part of history as well. LOL, you've got my personal email on file so just send anything through there if you like to take it offline. No biggie either way.
Larry

Thanks!

So cool. Can we look forward to updates?

Absolutely.