Hello, My name is Gerald Frisbie and I found this site from Wikipedia. I served 7 years in the Army as a paratrooper and 24 years in the Iowa National Guard and served overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan and Okinowa. I am retired and have the time for family history research. I am looking for information on 2 relatives.The First is my father in law, Vernon Arthur Clasen, who served as an M4 tank driver with the 762d provisional tank battalion, 27th Infantry Division. On 9 April 1945, upon entering the Ryuku campaign, his tank unit was reassigned to the 4582 QM SVC CO as a truck driver. The 4582 has no presence on Army or milconnect websites, Wikipedia, or Quartermaster websites. He died in 1977 before I graduated high school or even met my wife and Vernon spoke little of his Army service. We have his dress uniform with the appropriate ARPACFORCE and Armor insignia and no other medals. His OPMF files were lost in the 1973 fire at St Louis and I am interested in the unit history and any stories I can relate to my wife's family and relatives. Relative #2 is even more difficult; I had a brother of my maternal grandfather who was told he served in the Army in WW1 and never returned from service. Inqueries on the Minnesota Archive Site only lists the census from 1895-1915, The last sibling passed in 2000 and no further information is available. His name is Albin Gerhard Krognes from Hendrum, MN. the MIA webfinder produced no results and Krognes has been spelled with an A or O and ending in 1 or 2 S'. Ancestry can not find any military documents either. Thanks for any help.
Welcome to the Forums, Gerald, and thank you for your service. Regarding Albin Krognes (and various spellings), there is not much online. It may be worth contacting the Norman County Historical & Genealogy Society in Minnesota. There may be some local records or even newspapers that are not available online. Actually, if you watch the slide show on the main page, one of the pictures has a photo of the first men from Norman County to go to WWI. The plaque next to it mentions a "Mr. Krogness" being in the photo. Regarding Vernon A Clasen & the 762nd Tank Battalion, there are some good resources online. The book "Rolling Thunder Against the Rising Sun" by Gene Salecker has several references to the 762nd. The CARL has a PDF of the 762nd TB's AARs from 30 May - 25 Aug 1944 available for download. If you really want to dig deep, the NARA at College Park, where the WWII unit records are kept, probably has more records for the 762nd. The thread Unit Operational Records will help with that process. I believe that I may have found Vernon on a passenger list for LST-130 dated 7 Aug 1944: Unfortunately, someone blacked out the unit name & destination, but it is most likely the 762nd. The destination was Eniwetok according to the War Diary for the USS Twining:
Welcome to our humble forums Gerald, glad to have you. As you've already seen, there are great resources here for your searches. If I might ask, where on Wikipedia did you find us?