Need some advice

[tomf52]

I'm in the process or researching information about my former Scoutmaster. I was ten years old at the time in 1956 and can remember vividly stories he told us of his participation in the Battle of The Bulge as a trooper in the 101st Airborne. One particular event was prtrayed to a tee in the Band of Brothers series and I cannot help but wonder if this man was part of that 506 PIR and E company. Maybe even one of the soldiers depicted in that scene. I however have nothing more to go on. Internet searches have provided enough info to have found his last residence and date of death but I have been blocked out of the US Dept of Veteran Affairs, not being a family member. Unfortunately, his son , now appartently also deceased, and he shared the same first names and his wife and daughter also shared first names making tracking a nightmare. I would really like to be able to get service records which may answer many questions for me but don't know how to go about this. Can anybody out there shed some light on what I may be able to do to accomplish my goal? I really liked this man and have many fond memories of him and my time in Scouting with him as our leader. I sincerly appreciate any help I can get with this.

PS _ Ironically, during viewing many hours of WWII footage of the battle in Bastogne, up pops a clear as day close up image of him.Again though unforunately there was no info to llink him to an exact unit.

 

[ArtyGuy]

I don't think you can request any of his service records- if they even still exist. Do you know if the E Company has a reunion group and/or website? If so, you might try and make contact with them and see if anyone knows him?

One other thought, we have Division historians but I'm not sure if they did back then. If they did, there might very well be a record of him and what specific unit he was in. I don't know they'd respond to you but the 101st/FT Campbell does have a public affairs office. You might want to call them and ask.

PAO Home

 

[zzzippper]

My first USG job was with the Army Personnel Recod Center in St. Louis in 1976. Though there was a fire in 1971 that destroyed one floor of records his 9robably still exist. Getting them without NOK consent is a problem. You can contact them stating your purpose and possibly get them via FOIA. Two things:

1) they will rightfully protect his personal information as you would want them to protect yours.

2) You will almost certainly need his service number or SSN to identify the correct record. WWII service members had eight digit SNs. We added an 8 or 9 in front to fill out the requisite SSN nine digit field.

VA is another option but you'll have the same challenges.

Edit: I'm still thinking about this. Your curiosity is not a valid reason to release personal information. If you were an author researching the unit you might get generic information such as unit morning reports. There is no vaid reason for a non-NOK to get his entire record and find out that he was treated for clap in 1943 or that he had an article 15 for shop lifting or that he went to sick call after a one-in-a-million slip in the shower. All things that I read about during my eight years researching those records.