Hi,
I am trying to determine the medal entitlement for arelative that served in the USAAF as a top turret gunner / engineer on B-17s duringWW2.
He enlisted on 07Jul 41.
Joined the 305^th Bomb Group from HQ 23 Jul 43.
Missions
17 Aug 43– Schweinfurt
24 Aug 43– Villacoublay
27 Aug 43– Watten
31 Aug 43- Amiens
6 Sep 43 –Strasbourg
7 Sep 43 –Brussels
9 Sep 43 –Lille
15 Sep 43– Romilly
16 Sep 43– Mantes
27 Sep 43– Emden
2 Oct 43– Emden
9 Oct 43– Gdynia
10 Oct 43– Enschede
14 Oct 43Schweinfurt
Shot down 14 Oct43 over Schweinfurt andbecame POW at Stalag Luft XVIIB.
Liberated 08 Jun1945.

I believe he would be entitled to:

Air Medal (1 oak leaf clusters)
Purple Heart (injured during 14 Oct 43 mission over Schweinfurt)
(American Campaign Medal??????)
AEME Campaign Medal (1 Star)
Good Conduct Medal
WW2 Victory Medal
POW Medal

Can anyone confirm my logic with regards to hisconfirmation?
More than happy to be corrected.

Philip Blackwell

Philip -
Air Medal for first 5 Missions
OLC for every 5 Following
In his Personnel Records , His Discharge would
List medals and Awards.
Have you requested his Records?
Mike

Hi Mike,

Yes, I wrote to the records office a few months back and received a reply last week that his file was one of those destroyed in the fire in the 1970's.  The only thing they had was his final payment voucher!

Phil

Phil - Bummer !
Some Sources where Relatives have found information.
County Records , County he was from
Local newspaper Archives
If he ever dealt with VA , VA would have Records.
Place of Employment - Discharge would be in his
Employee File.
Mike

Shooshoobaby,

All my fathers papers were lost in the same fire.

I did get his Enlisted Record and Report of Separation / Honorable Discharge.

Does this help our friend? Can he get this one as my father lost his in the fire?
 
I got this and his medals with this form and information. 

It seems to be too much file to download here but here is a portion of it.

Attached Image(s)

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

I was advised that all that NARA(?) could provide me was his final pay voucher.
Where / who would hold copies of his discharge certificate?

Phil

It takes time and you have to fax in a signed request when they tell you to.

This is the site that helped me to obtain my fathers information. With that you can trace even more things.

http://www.archives.gov/

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

I also experienced a veteran's records destroyed in the fire.

I was able to obtain a newspaper clipping, and KU Report.

The end result:   posthumous award the Purple Heart, Air Medal, and POW medals. 

Robert

What can really made things move along is if you have the individuals Service Serial Number.

Our son in 9 TH Grade interviewed my father about the Attack on Hickam on 12/7/1941. My father was there and he gave our son his serial number to show he was already in the service and a regular Army Air Corp Personnel before the Attack.

I was able to get his serial number from the History Report he gave to our son who got an A +. That was a great help. 

Those who enlisted and were drafted after the war was declared had other serial numbers that could be used to distinguish the difference. 

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

I was fortunate in that I already had his named Air Medal (the only medal that seems to have survived) so was able to google his service number - which allowed me to find details of his POW status, his enlistment date, his MACR from when he was shot down etc.
Fellow forum members then helped fill in the blanks for the missions he flew etc.

As I mentioned the frustrating part is that the bits I really need to finish off his story seem to be impossible to get.

Meant to ask also, what is a KU report?

Meant to ask also, what is a KU report?

It was a "Report on Capture of Members of Enemy Air Forces" initiated by the Germans which included description of wounds experienced by American airmen.  It came with the MACR.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v191/Robersabel/Richardson%20MACR/?action=view&current=RichardsonMACR06.jpg

Robert

If the loss of the aircraft occurred over German-held territory, the crew members were examined by German authorities. Every document, letter, passport, photo, written paper, as well as any money were taken from them. These items were delivered to the Interrogation Center at Oberursel. The crew members were interrogated by English-speaking German soldiers.

The seized documents were filed and numbered using a specific system. If the crew belonged to a U.S. bomber, the file was numbered “KU“ (Kampflugzeuge USA which translates to "Battleplane USA") followed by a series number.  Reports for fighter aircraft were given a "J" (Jäger) followed by the series number.

A KU Report document was prepared by the Luftwaffe concerning the location of the aircraft wreckage and fate of the crew. The KU Report was wired by the Luftwaffe to Allied Command. Click on the KU Report for "Punchboard" if you want to see an example for a B-17-G downed on APR 1944 over Denmark. (Tail number 42-39974, 8th AF, 452nd BG, 731st Bomb Squadron, based in Deopham Green.)

After the occupation of Germany, these documents and their KU Report file were taken to the U.S. where they are now kept at the National Archives with the aircraft's corresponding MACR, "Lost Aircraft Report" statement(s), and any "Individual Casualty Questionnaires" (ICQ's).

CPT(VT) W.P. Sullivan
HQ Company - Asst G-3
Camp Johnson, VT

___‹(•¿•)›____
Kilroy was here

I obtained a copy of MACR for my fellow and it didn't have a 'KU' with it.
Is this something I need to ask for specifically - or did the MACRs sometimes not have one attached?

Phil

Phil -
Click on Research Help top of Page -
Scroll Down to KU Reports.
Mike

I have been trying to reconstruct my father's military service record for 5 years now. First attempt I ran into the "destroyed in the fire" response. I did have his discharge papers which helped, but they were very incomplete (I am told that a lot of vets knew that when they were discharged but didn't care because all they wanted was a signed discharge paper). Through pictures, home town newspaper articles, obituaries and requests for After Action Reports and other archives related to the units to which I know he was attached I have been able to not only reconstruct quite a bit of his record, I have also been able to have his record officially corrected/updated. Actually the home town newspaper was a great source of information...a tedious process but very interesting and informative!

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 

phiblack

I obtained a copy of MACR for my fellow and it didn't have a 'KU' with it.
Is this something I need to ask for specifically - or did the MACRs sometimes not have one attached?

Phil

MOST (but not all) KU Reports are likely to be on file in the National Archives.....

1. If the file documents came into US possession after being liberated from the German admin offices. Those admin offices "liberated" by other Allies (most notably the Red Army) were less likely to result in KU Reports being forwarded to US authorities for intelligence review and Grave Registration.
2. If they were filed inside Luftwaffe filing cabinets when those filing cabinets were liberated by Americans. That is, not loose on a clerk's desk, not in a folder under review by German intelligence, not in-transit from one German installation to another.
3. The system was not fool-proof. If the US clerks filed and/or refiled them correctly after reading, reviewing, microfilming, etc. Remember, the info they contain would be of interest to several agencies within the US structure for their own interest and purposes: Grave Registration, AAF supply/logistics bean-counters, unit historians, Cold War planners, and on and on. It involved old paper documents that were generated by another (hostile) govenment and boxed up for shipping overseas, and relied on paper clips in the days befor digital scanning and photocopiers.

CPT(VT) W.P. Sullivan
HQ Company - Asst G-3
Camp Johnson, VT

___‹(•¿•)›____
Kilroy was here

One other potential medal would be the American Defense Service Medal.

This was authorized from Sep '38 to 6Dec41.   That said, the Army is the only service that required personnel serve at least 12-months to qualify; all the other services qualified regardless of how much time they had served within the dates.

I doubt he would qualify, but if it were me, I'd bring this issue to the attention of some politician and ask that they modify the criteria so that all service personnel qualify under the same criteria vice one service having to do more than the others.  Personally I don't see why the Army put the extra spin on this medal, but they apparently did.

But before doing that I'd ask St. Louis to make the award notation and see what they do about it.

And today there are medals created that have been authorized back to WWII (POW Medal for example), that didn't exist then.  The National Defense Service Medal is another...it was taken back to 1950 after it was created, and there are several Korean Service medals that were created way after that conflict that can now be added to service members records. 

So gettin this one slightly modified could be done but maybe no one has taken up the issue.  The whole point was to recognize service personnel who were serving on active duty when Europe was burning to the ground.

Larry

Son of Cpl Charles Caldwell, Engineer Crewman, USAAF Crash Boat P-258, Rey Island, Panama (Pacific side)