Hello, this is my first post!  I'm helping my husband and his family find information about his grandfather's WWII service.  Unfortunately, he didn't talk to anyone in his family about his war experience, so there's not much we can find so far.  His record burned in the archive fire and he must not have bothered to send in his information.  My husband's grandmother died a little bit ago so we have been going through the house looking for any of his grandfather's belongings from the war.  We wanted to wait to post here until we got as much as we could find!

We do have his dog tags and his registration information/card (from looking at ancestry.com records).  He enlisted in 1943 in Oregon but was from Minnesota.  We know that he was in the AAF and there are letters between he and his brother that are addressed to him in the Philippines.  He has a Sustineo Alas pin, a Good Conduct medal, pins for rifle and small bore rifle, and a card that certifies him as a "powerman" July 1944 from Camp Crowder, Missouri.  We know that he must have picked up welding skills in the war, and it goes along with what we could find a powerman did.

My brother in law finally found his uniform, and it has some patches on it.  We haven't been able to find any of the actual medals, but he does have the ribbons on his coat.  I've attached some photos of the patches and ribbons to see if we can get any help identifying the patches.  We do have the patches for the AAF as well that were just loose - no numbers, just with the star and wings on the blue background. 

Sorry for this very long intro - we're hoping to find as much as we can about him.  If there's anything that I can answer or that will help, I'll do my best!  I'll say thanks in advance - we've found a lot of answers so far here on the forums for things like the Sustineo alas and the tags for the rifle/small bore.

Also apologize if the photos show up weirdly - just a note that on the ribbon for the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign, there are 2 small bronze stars on there.  We've been looking through books and found that it might mean that he was part of 2 major engagements, but if anyone has other info, that would be appreciated too!

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The shoulder patch is Western Pacific Forces (c. 1945).  The ribbons are WWII victory medal (top one), Good Conduct, American Campaign, and Asia-Pacific Campaign ribbons (bottom, left to right).

Gary

CBI Unit Lineages & History
http://www.cbi-history.com/

Guessing if the letters had an address on them they didn't mention a unit (??)  Many addresses did mention a unit.

Keep digging with other relatives...the letter addresses and content have much information.  Even though the content may be general due to the censors back then, today references and letter dates can easily be matched to history and location.

Happy hunting...its an addiction.

Ron

Son of Ron Macdonald Flying Sgt. 59th OTU RAF (Hurris & Spits, Dieppe raid), Lt. with 346thFS/350thFG North Africa (P-39s). Shot down at Kasserine. Instructor with the 1053 BFTS Randolph, 2138 BU Craig, 2532BU Randolph, & 2543 BU Waco (AT-6s & B-25s).

My father was still alive when he found that his records were destroyed in that fire.

Yet the Veterans Administration and others have ways of getting the information from other sources and my father received his duty earned medical treatments.

After he died my Mother gave me all his papers and his serial number was on them.

Look hard for a Service Serial Number and then go to this link below.

I did and I got all his earned Medals and his Enlisted Record and Separation Paper. It gave me enough to go to his Units site and they even helped me find men who served with my father.

It was a huge blessing and honor to later speak to three of the men on the phone last fall.  My father trained them to go back into the Pacific, he had been there in 1942. What he learned he taught to the replacement before they went back into the Pacific. A Mr. Coats told me
"what your father taught me kept me a live and I wouldn't be here to tell you this today if it wasn't for your fathers' great training".

Some day Mr. Coats and I can Pop that ourselves when we get promoted to Glory with him. 

Also this link will give you the information to get you his medals as next of kin. It does take time but it can be done and is daily. But look for that serial number on any kind of forms or materials he left. It can be and will be a huge help.

My father is Heilman in this photo, he was Tech/Sgt. Heilman. I was able to speak to Mr. Crothers, LT. Krey and Mr. Coats.

 http://www.archives.gov/

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Sincerely yours,
PA.Dutchman

Son of T/Sgt. Ray A. Heilman, JR.
11 TH Field Artillery 1937-1940
Schofield Barracks
7 TH AAC 11 BGH 42 Sq.1940-45
Hickam Survivor 12/7/1941
AAC Armorer (P) 911
P.U.Citation1942

If you are going to try to piece together his entire military history and he came from a smaller town where there was a "home town paper", I encourage you to dig into their archives. There was often a section just devoted to "Our Boys in Service" that would report dates, units, accomplishmenets etc. of local boys.

Roger Myers

Son of Sgt. William Myers (6/8/42 to 8/20/46) 
Illinois Reserve Militia, Co. H, 4th Regiment
Burtonwood Base, England
89th Infantry Div  
106th Div (Detach F, 6951 OH Guard Bn)
69th Amphibian Tractor Bn