June 6, 2024, will mark the 80th Anniversary of D-Day. This Day of Days would pave the way for the liberation of Europe. Codenamed Operation Overlord, the largest amphibious invasion in military history consisted of 160,000 Allied troops, 11,000 Allied Aircraft, 7,000 ships and boats, and thousands of other vehicles. According to the National WWII Museum, it has been estimated that 119,550 of the 16.4 million Americans who served in WWII were still alive in 2023 and that 131 leave us each day. Another Memorial Day has passed, but it need not be the only time we reflect. Learning about your own family who have served can be a rewarding yet challenging endeavor.
My one uncle, Ralph (affectionately known as Deet), served during WWII as a paratrooper. He never liked to really talk about his service, so the only information about his service I had was what he had told my dad and his brother Ray. When they asked how he wrapped Christmas packages so nicely, he revealed that one of his details was to pack personal effects to send home to the families. He had said that he felt it was the least he could do. He also recounted that his unit was dropped off the coast of Dog Island, where they ended up in the water with full packs, where he had managed to help a few of his comrades off with their packs. In researching this, I emailed the director of a museum for Camp Gordon Johnston in Carrabelle, Florida. There isn’t a lot of information about this accident, though he did provide a scan of a leaflet from a memorial service that was held.
Further information was found in Florida Historical Quarterly’s “Hell-By-The-Sea” by David J. Coles. “With Japan unlikely to surrender, training was undertaken for an amphibious assault on the Japanese mainland. In July 1945, a group of paratroopers from Fort Benning, Georgia, faced high winds with several men landing in East Pass, between Dog & St. George Islands, with ten men drowning.”
Despite this information, I have thus far been unable to identify his unit. Sadly, the forms and records that might have had this information burned in a fire in 1973. Records for Deet, as well as my Uncle Todd (USAF), were in this fire. For Army personnel discharged Nov. 1, 1912 – Jan. 1, 1960, an estimated 80% of these were lost. For Air Force personnel discharged Sept. 25, 1947 – Jan. 1, 1964, an estimated 75% of these were lost. I still contacted the NARC (National Archives Records Center), and they provided some records, including Deet’s parachutist certification.
When embarking on your family’s military history research, start with what you know and work backward. Your immediate family may be able to provide insight or recall certain things that may help you. The first step is to gather all the information you have, such as names, dates, and locations. Then, use this information to search online databases, such as Ancestry and Fold3, for military records. Don’t forget to check local archives, libraries, and museums for additional resources. My Aunt and both of my parents have been of great help in this process. The story of my Uncle Deet above exemplifies how oral history passed on through family can lead to finding supporting information in a book, journal, etc.
Old boxes of family photographs can also provide further information. For example, Deet mailed a postcard to my dad featuring a heavily bombed Hitler’s house when he was on leave visiting Germany. Many old family photos can suffer from “silvering” due to several different factors. Store photos with acid-free materials rather than stacking them in a box, and avoid fluctuations in temperature and sunlight. Photos can be digitized, but care must be taken not to cause more undue damage.
Of course, Ancestry and other sites like it, including Newspapers.com and Fold3, are great sources (though not the only sources) of records and information. Sites like Ancestry often require a subscription for many of their records, but they are great ways to find information. Especially if you are looking for records with a service member’s serial or “service number.” These numbers alone carry a lot of information within them, such as what component that member was in and the state of their induction. Fold3 has a great article/blog about identifying military personnel and decoding their serial numbers. Other records you might find include enlistment forms and selective service registration forms, which offer, at the very least, a starting point. The further back you go, the harder things can become. Civil War and Revolutionary records can sometimes be hard to read. You also can run into instances where names are spelled differently because of census records. For example, my last name of Sones had changed from its German spelling of Sohnes at some point. Both spellings appear on different census records for the same individual. There could be various reasons, like the census taker misspelling it, a family wishing to avoid discrimination, or just a simple matter of illiteracy at the time. You may have to look at dates and locations and use common sense to ascertain whether the information is for the same individual.
Preserving your family’s military history is not just about learning and documenting. It’s about honoring the men and women who served, understanding their sacrifices, and passing on their legacy to future generations. By writing down or archiving your research, you are ensuring that their stories are not forgotten. Sharing this information with your family is a great way to remember the military service of the men and women in your family tree. More importantly, it’s a great way to preserve it.
