Ask Before It Is Too Late

[fortworthgal]

My grandfather served in WWII and his records were also lost in the fire in the 70s. He was KIA in November 1944, and is buried in the cemetery at Henri-Chapelle, Belgium. Very little of his information had survived - I had no paperwork, no service number, only a name and a couple of photos from basic training to go on. His wife, my grandmother, had passed on, and the only person who had any information about him (or cared) was my father, and he didn't like to talk about it much as my grandfather died when he was very young, so I felt uncomfortable asking. To date I have been unable to locate a single person that served with or remembers my grandfather. Through much perseverance over a period of about 4 years, I have pieced together his service record and gotten copies of most of his service papers, entirely on my own. So, hopefully I can offer a little advice.

The first thing you need to do is fill out a form and mail it off to the National Personnel Records Center. List yourself as next of kin. It takes a while, but they are very helpful and will mail you the information you requested, or as much as they can. Even though my grandfather's records were also destroyed in the fire, they still had copies of several items they were able to mail me - including copies of letters my grandmother had handwritten to the War Department asking for his belongings! Be warned they are VERY slow - it was 6 months to a year before I got any response on this. This should help:

http://www.archives.gov/veterans/mil...-form-180.html

If he is interred overseas in a military cemetery, the ABMC will provide a photo of his grave and more information, free of charge. Their website is www.abmc.gov

I also found this website to be invaluable:
http://members.aol.com/dadswar/index.htm

You may also want to try the American War Orphans Network - http://www.awon.org/

I have also picked up a copy of his unit's service history during WWII (9th Division, "Eight Stars to Victory"), and there is also a website that sells reprints of WWII combat reports that may be helpful to you: http://www.militaryunits.com/

 

[Gray Ghost]

My Hero

I was lucky that my Dad did not mind talking about the war plus that I was very interested in his service. I asked alot of questions and wrote down a lot of info. My dad was Asa McDonald Russ, Jr of the HQ Squadron, XIII Fighter Command of the 13th "Jungle" Air Force. He served on New Caledonia, Guadalcanal, New Guinea, and the Phillipines. Sadly he passed away on 20 July 2006 but his memory lives on and the vets of the 13th Air Force Veterans Association has adopted me as their own and made me their Chaplain and Membership Manager. If there are any 13th Air Force vets out there that has not joined the organization, please PM me. You dont have to be a WWII vet of the 13th to join. As long as you wore the 13th patch from any decade up till present time, you can join.

Eric L. Russ aka Gray Ghost

 

[CombatCam]

I sympathize with everyone. Three of my now-deceased family members served in WW2, and all before I was educated enough to really appreciate it. My grandfather was a bombing instructor in the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. My great-uncle was a pilot in the RAF and then the USAAF, and my other great-uncle flew PBYs over the North Atlantic for the RCAF. Now they're all dead, and while I can kind of piece some bits together from my grandfather's photo collection and uniforms (as well as some miscellaneous papers and things I've found), my great-uncles' kids live all over the world, so finding them to try and get info is tough. I've been able to get some info, but it's a long and drawn-out process.

Best of luck to all who are doing this too! Someday air travel will be cheap enough that we can fly everywhere and not worry about the costs.

Cheers,
CombatCam