81st Infantry, 322 Regiment.."Wildcats"

Actually one that looks like my grandfather is the one on the bottom left. in one picture he's sitting down with a hat in his hand. the other one he is standing leaning into the monument with another guy standing above him.

 

Sorry, my dad took the picture but never wrote names on those prints. It was possibly years between sending the film home (if mailed) and seeing the prints.
He probably did know the fellows, though.
Show the display to someone of his generation or as close as possible, if you can. Maybe they can give an I D.

Here is the officer command chain per my dad's Letter of Commendation:

Captain Cloyd C. Schultz; Commanding Company "H" 323rd Infantry 7 March
1945
Lt. Colonel Hugh K. Forsman; Commanding Second Battalion 323rd Infantry
6 March 1945
Colonel Arthur P. Watson; Commanding 323rd Infantry 5 March 1945
Major General Paul J. Mueller; Commanding 81st Infantry Division 28
February 1945

At war's end, the 81st Division was a unit of the IX Corps (Major General Leland Hobbs was one of the Corp's commanders).
IX Corps belonged variously to the Tenth Army, the Sixth Army and, at war's end; was part of the
Eighth Army, which was commanded (1944-1948) by Lt. Gen. Robert L. Eichelberger.

Do you have photos of your grandfather's platoon, or squad? I have a copy of my panorama photo of the entire "H" company as one link on my website.
Can you (drool, drool) provide copy (or link if online) of the autobiography?
When did he leave Japan for the USA?

Tec 4 Browne had a lot to say about Leyte and Japan. MacArthur's Reports include dates for the arrival and later disbanding of the Wildcats.

 

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In the top picture, my grandfather is the one on the left. That's the picture that made me think it might be him in that photo of the monument. Hard to tell because he's not smiling in this one. I do have his autobiography on a word doc. It's not a published book, just something he started writing in the ninety's for family. Here's the soldiering part of his stories...ok I can't figure out how to get it on here, but I could email it to you.

 

My uncle, Joseph Tobias, was in the

81st Infantry Wildcats, 323rd Regiment. He was killed in Peleliu on Oct. 26, 1944, at age 19. I don't know which company he was in. In fact, I discovered that he was a Wildcat by the information on his tombstone in Long Island National Cemetery, which I discovered while doing genealogy research. ​

 

Welcome to the Forum, btobias1. I believe I have found your uncle Joseph S. Tobias on Find a Grave. With this information, I was able find him in the Enlistment Database which has his Army Serial Number. With that information, you could request his Official Military Personnel File (OMPF) and/or Individual Deceased Personnel File (IDPF).

 

Thank you TD-Tommy776. That is my uncle's grave that you found, and I really appreciate you finding his Army Serial Number. I clicked on the links you provided and will definitely request his OMPF and IDPF. I was born in the 60's and always knew that I had an uncle who died in WW II but until I started doing some genealogy research, didn't know anything about the 81st Infantry and the significance of their role at Peleliu. My father, who passed away in 2001, was 16 when his brother died,and it was something that he never really spoke of. When I was a kid, I remember every October my dad would seem really down, and my mother would say things like "behave and don't upset your father, Daddy is feeling bad about the anniversary of his brother getting killed in the war."

 

I will advise you, from personal experience, that you are more likely going to get more information from the IDPF request than an OMPF request. As you may know, there was a fire in 1973 that destroyed about 80% of the Army personnel records. However, I would still suggest that you request the records, as that is the only way to know if his records survived the fire. His IDPF, on the other hand, will yield at least some information that you don't already have. The contents can vary, but generally include the chain of custody of the remains, communication with the next of kin, and an accounting of his personal property. It is very likely that it will provide you with the Company with which he served.

 

On resource you will see mentioned regularly on this Forum is HyperWar and for good reason. It is the best online resource on the subject of WW2 history. For example, you can read about the Battle for Peleliu in the online edition of the US Army in WWII: The Approach to the Philippines beginning at chapter XXI. In chapter XXIV, I found the following (pp. 569-570):

Map: 323d Infantry at Umurbrogol Pocket, 26-27 Oct 1944

Though more research should be done, this may have been the action in which your uncle was killed.

 

Thank you so much Tommy for the information and links and for pointing me towards HyperWar. This is all pretty new to me so I'm glad to have an online resource to read that I can trust. I hardly have any information, so the IDPF should at least fill in some of the blanks. I vaguely remember hearing something about Joe being killed by a land mine, but I'm not sure. When my father passed away my mother and I thought we might find the telegram but it wasn't in my father's things. I sent off my requests for the IDPF and OMPF yesterday, so now the wait begins...

 

It is interesting that you should mention this. I just came across an Operation Report of the 81st Infantry Division on Peleliu on CARL. In that document, the following incident is recounted on 26 Oct 1944:

If your recollection is accurate, this reference could be significant. However, as I have mentioned before, more research must be done before drawing any conclusions.

My IDPF took a full 4 months to receive. It also took about that amount of time to get the "Fire Letter" for each of my great uncles. Needless to say, one does need to be patient.

 

Wow, I was absolutely stunned reading what you found in the Operation Report of the 81st Infantry Division on Peleliu on CARL . So it's possible that my foggy recollection could be true after all. Just today, I got the book Victory at Peleliu: The 81st Infantry Division's Pacific Campaign, and the first thing I did was skip to Chapter 8 describing events of October 26 in the words of Wildcat veterans who were there, including the incident of the buried aerial bomb that killed and maimed the Company E soldiers, and now I'm reading the Introduction. I'm hoping that the IDPF will fill in some of the blanks, and I won't draw any conclusions until I have as much information as I can obtain. The internet is just so vast it would have taken me a lot of time on my own to find these websites and figure out how to request records so thank you so much again!

 

You're welcome. The IDPF should tell you what company he was in and, if it was Company E, this particular mine incident is still in play. When you find out what company he was in, you may then want to see about finding the Morning Report for 26 Oct 44.

 

Did you get the Morning Reports for your great uncles? I don't live anywhere near St. Louis, so I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

 

No, I haven't done that yet. I just got the "Fire" letters a short while ago and hadn't yet decided on the time periods to request. With two great uncles, it can get expensive. For most folks it is not practical to do the research themselves so they end up hiring a researcher (that's the expensive part). In your case, however, you have a pretty small period to research -- one day. On the other hand, when you get the IDPF (and hopefully his OMPF), you may find that there is more to look into than that one day. I would at least wait until you get a chance to go through the IDPF.

I checked the listing of records at the Eisenhower Presidential Library and they do have some files for the 81st Division and the 322d Infantry Regiment in their US Army Unit Records collection. Having been there to do research, I can assure you that this means absolutely nothing one way or the other. That is to say, the only way to know what the files contain is to look through them. It is possible that your uncle might be mentioned somewhere in the files, but it is highly unlikely. However, they may provide some background information that might be helpful. I have done some searches on the internet and haven't found a lot on the 81st or the 322d, so it might be worth checking out. I hope to make another trip down there sometime and wouldn't mind checking them. That may be a while though.

 

Yes, I will wait until I get the IDPF and hopefully OMPF before deciding whether or not to pursue the Morning Report. What does the term "Fire" letter mean? I tried googling it and have learned more military slang terms than I probably ever need to know, but no hits for fire letter. I've never been to Missouri or Kansas but I promised my family that our next vacation will be a beach trip, so it might be a while before I ever get to a landlocked state!

 

I think you are wise to stick to the beach. Abilene is a nice little town, but it ain't The Keys or Malibu.

Sorry for the shorthand. The "Fire Letter" refers to the letter they send out when an OMPF request cannot be fulfilled due to the records being destroyed in the 1973 fire which I mentioned in an earlier post.

I just ran across something else on the 81st. On this web page, I found a digitized version of a booklet on the history of the 81st. It's not going to provide a lot of detail, but it would be a nice thing to have. If your uncle had survived the War, he might very well have had a copy of the booklet.

 

Ha! Those are part of my web site! (Posted to be visible.)
I have also transcribed a more specific history of Company "H" of the 323rd. From my veteran dad's personal memorabilia; this is a mimeographed standard-paper size booklet, circa November 1945. This was composed while the 323rd Regiment was on occupation duty at Hachinohe Air Base, Aomori Prefecture, Japan.
Some of the officers names are only partially readable, but hundreds of enlisted men, in three rosters, remained much more readable.
I typed the names, and scanned the images.
A HISTORY OF COMPANY "H"

PRESENT MEMBERS

FORMER MEMBERS

FRISCO BOUND


On a separate segment, Mr Williamson kindly provided a copy of his grandpa's autobiography - from induction to discharge.

GLEN WILLIAMSON OF THE 323RD WILDCATS

 

Originally Posted by TD-Tommy776
Sorry for the shorthand. The "Fire Letter" refers to the letter they send out when an OMPF request cannot be fulfilled due to the records being destroyed in the 1973 fire which I mentioned in an earlier post.
I just ran across something else on the 81st. On this web page, I found a digitized version of a booklet on the history of the 81st. It's not going to provide a lot of detail, but it would be a nice thing to have. If your uncle had survived the War, he might very well have had a copy of the booklet.


​

OK, now that I know what "fire letter" means, it sounds so obvious, I should have put two and two together and recognized the reference to the 1973 fire. All of this is so fascinating. Between all of the websites that you have found and the Victory at Peleliu book, I have my reading cut out for me while I wait for the IDPF and hopefully OMPF to arrive. Thank you so much again! And if only they had thought to locate the war records in Key West or Malibu...how convenient would that be?!

 

Key West is not centrally located. Why put up a document warehouse on low land in a hurricane belt? You displace too many vacation homes.

 

Without actually looking up the specifics, I'm assuming the St. Louis facility is tornado resistant, if such a thing is possible? The furthest midwest I've been, if you can call it that, is Cleveland, would love to visit Missouri & Kansas someday, once my family gets a beach vacation or two out of their systems.

I am amazed at the wealth of information on your website! The uncle that I am researching unfortunately was killed at Peleliu, but nonetheless I am completely fascinated and reading everything I can about the 81st Infantry in WWII.