Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire ways & means to find old military records for WW2 combatants.

is there a general listing of medals given out? (purple hearts, etc.)

what about members of invasionary landings? (storming normandy, battle of the bulge).

any other methods to locate a member who has served?

starting from scratch: army service, but don't know the unit(s).

thanks for any info, general or specific.

National Archives is probably the place to start.

https://www.archives.gov

There are some listings for higher awards, but I'm not aware of anything close to a database of all the people who received one.

Pictures of the uniform can help narrow down the unit.

thanks much.

know of an old dude, who passed years ago.

came home from ww2 all beaten up, but alive.

he served admirably and was a patriot.

essentially no family. so it's a guessing game.

Thanks for that link as I've been considering some more research on my father and a couple uncles. Recently did some research on my paternal grandfathers World War One service with the Canadian Army at www.collectionscanada.gc.ca Gonna do the WWII research next and all that involves U. S. service branches.

When I started looking for info on my Great Uncle who was KIA shortly after Market Garden I had a little more info to go on then that. Your situation is a lot tougher.

On July 12, 1973, a disastrous fire at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) destroyed approximately 16-18 million Official Military Personnel Files (OMPF). The records affected:
Branch Personnel and Period Affected Estimated Loss
Army Personnel discharged November 1, 1912 to January 1, 1960 80%
Air Force Personnel discharged September 25, 1947 to January 1, 1964
(with names alphabetically after Hubbard, James E.) 75%

No duplicate copies of these records were ever maintained, nor were microfilm copies produced. Neither were any indexes created prior to the fire. In addition, millions of documents had been lent to the Department of Veterans Affairs before the fire occurred. Therefore, a complete listing of the records that were lost is not available. However, in the years following the fire, the NPRC collected numerous series of records (referred to as Auxiliary Records) that are used to reconstruct basic service information.

About fifteen or twenty years ago, I sent a letter (the paper kind) and went through the routine to get information regarding my dad's WWII service record. His paperwork was among the records lost in the fire in the '70s. I received a letter back, but as I recall, the government could provide no information whatsoever.

the NARA records from that era are pretty skimpy due to the big fire. i looked up my dad and uncles and it had their date and place of induction and discharge.

There are some websites that list medal recipients, but they are not all complete. I checked a few just now that didn't list my father for two different medals he received. But I know I found a site that did list him several years back. Still, if you do a search on those sites and can find his name listed, they might provide you with more information, such as what unit he was assigned to. Then you could do searches for those specific units. Do you have any idea whether he served in the European or Pacific theater for instance? If you don't know whether he received any awards, but he saw a lot of combat, you might start by looking under Recipients of the Bronze Star.

I thought my father's medals had been lost for years, but found them under a shelf that had collapsed at mom's house where the roof had been leaking. There was some water damage to the display case from the leak, but the medals are still intact. Father's records are quite complete. He had copies of his honorable discharge, etc.

Edit to add pic I shot of the medals with my phone after I found them.

If you have an Ancestry.com account or know someone who does there is a ton of information on WW2 veterans there.

Many veterans filed their discharge papers with the county recorder when they got home. That might be a good place to start if you know where he lived/came home to.

My wife tracked down my Uncle's records will ask her how when I get back in town. She then tracked down copies of the metals I was missing.





He was killed in action and I was named after him.

Re-posted the pic below for you old_willys.

uncle ted.jpg:

Some info available at WWII Memorial Registry
WWII registry

you have to do a lot of diggin, i know that.
i visited an uncles grave in portland a few years ago, said on the stone veteran of WWI and WWII. I knew about WWI, but WWII? he was born in the 1800's.
i filed for information and he actually did serve a little in WWII. He was an explosive/blasting type of guy, and also ran mules.

I got a smith and wesson tripple lock, and it had a man's name stamped on the grip. Searching british war records i found him killed during the battle of the somme, and buried in northern france. I have pictures now of the cemetery, his grave site, his picture, some of his college records from the university of glascow and was able to correct some of THEIR records.
i am trying to get a guy to visit his parents home circa 1912 to see if they find anything.
ancestry.com is a good source.
find a grave.com is another one.

Legion of Merit
Bronze Star
Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
Philippine Liberation Medal
American Campaign Medal
American Defense Service Medal
WWII Victory Medal
Good Conduct Medal

American Campaign Medal
WWII Victory Medal
Purple Heart
Good Conduct Medal
European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal (?)
Bronze Star
[Right Side]
French Croix De Guerre (War Cross)
Silver Star

Gus,

I'm SAD to have to tell you that many records of GIs service were destroyed by a fire in St Louis, MO some years ago. = IF the veteran's last name was in the section A-F, the vast majority are GONE & cannot be recovered.
(All of the men on both sides of our extended family were in that section, being "B", "D", "E" & "F" surnames & when I requested their records, I received a letter saying that ALL of their service records were burned "beyond recovery".)

yours, tex