Fyi, I received today, by email, the IDPF I requested in mid-October for SGT Jesse East, F Company, 157th Infantry Regiment. Less than four months is pretty good response time from the Army. Dave
That is pretty good, Dave. I wonder if that may be an indication that there are fewer requests in the queue.
I believe records for individuals are considered Archival and thus public record after 65 years of the individual leaving the Army. I would presume this would include IDPFs, which, at this point, should all be Archival I would think. Dave may correct me, but it seems to make sense. Oh, wait a minute. What am I thinking. This is a bureaucracy we're talking about.
I just metioned in my request that he was never married and had no sibblings alive. They were pretty quick in responding and never charged me a cent. The information in these files are pretty somber.
I have found the same, though mine took 4 full months. It is a pretty somber set of documents. However, it may generate more questions than it answers and may also provide some unexpected information.
I had a rare bit of luck. My father was with a young man when he was killed by a sniper. It weighs heavily on my dad, the "why him and not me" kind of thing, and he said the guy was a really friendly guy. My dad couldn't remember his name because they called him by some nickname, and I've been trying to find out. Long story short, we connected with a man in my dad's unit who sort of remembered his name. I found a young man with a similar name listed as KIA, but it didn't list his unit, found an obit for his brother who died in 2010, emailed the local library and they verified that this young man served in the same unit as my father, and the librarian is going to send a photo and an article about how he died. I was going to try to get a copy of this report for him to find his unit and lucked into this info. After so many dead ends in my research for my father, the success here was a pleasant surprise.
Clem & TD, When I read the IDPF for my uncle, I noticed the names of the fellow heros he was burried next to in Holchenfeld, France. This was a temporary cemetery. I found a family member of one and we have become good friends. I also read letters written by my grandma about his final burrial. She died before I was born....
Yes, the one I obtained for my great uncle Glenn had that as well as some other interesting info. I won't go into the details, but a lot more went on than just a simple burial. It is interesting to see all the paperwork that was done through the process of burial and returning him home. One thing I didn't expect to find was a copy of the death certificate of my great grandfather. He was in the Army's records as the next-of-kin and had died while Glenn was overseas. The Army required a copy of his DC before it would make Glenn's mother the next-of-kin. It must have been difficult for her to have to deal with the red tape while grieving over her loss, but it had to be done.
A couple of unexpected "bonuses," if that would be the proper term, that Steve got to read those letters and befriended someone in such a way, and that Tommy got a copy of his great grandfather's death certificate (not that it's a pleasant thing, but great from a family genealogy aspect). Odd, but I feel grief for the young man whose name I found, even though I never knew him and I've heard of him most of my life. But to find out his name, Wallace Erali, and to hear he was the youngest of twelve children, to know he worked at the local grocery afternoons after school and received a high school diploma in absentia because he'd joined up, and to know he was only 22 when he died 67 years ago and never got to be an old man. Makes him more real.
Hi kerrd, glad to hear of your success! Apologies for the novice question, but what is an IDPF? What do you have to do to request one? My grandfather spent half of his time overseas with the 157th as well! AT company however. Glad to see another Thunderbird in the forum.
IDPF(Individual Deceased Personnel File) Look at the attached thread especially post 17-20. http://www.ww2f.com/military-servic...esting-copies-military-personnel-records.html
Clem, The easy and most thoughtful way to honor a fallen hero is to read about him and his battles. I try to pick one out every so often and remember him by reading about his battles..... We should never forget..... From our church 2 brothers were KIA. The only 2 kids Mr & Mrs McKinnon ever had. They went to war and never came home. Roy McKinnon- Operation Tiger Irv McKinnon- Iwo Jima
I infer that your grandfather survived the war. The Individual Deceased Personnel File was created by the Army for soldiers who died, i.e., KIA, Died Non-Battle, etc. in WW II. What is his name by the way? 45thinfantry : 45th Infantry Division (Thunderbirds) Dave
By the way, this is why I requested the East IDPF: The first casualties sustained by the 157th Infantry Regiment in the war occurred on 10 July 1943, the first day of Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily, when multiple landing craft launched by the USS Thomas Jefferson collided and/or crashed on the rocks of Punta Braccetta, which is south of Scogletti. The 157th After Action Report states that 27 men drowned that day. However, Samuel Eliot Morison in his volume "Sicily - Salerno - Anzio" wrote that 38 men drowned from the collision of the landing crafts on 10 July 1943. Rick Atkinson repeated that number in "The Day of Battle." I have the Morning Reports for E, F, and H Companies, which bore all of the drowning casualties that day. The 157th Battle Casualty list from the NARA states East drowned on 19 July 1943. I requested his IDPF because I suspected the date was wrong. The 101 page document reveals the Army and War Department expended a great deal of time and energy to confirm East's date of death. On page 87 of the pdf I finally found the confirmation of the date of death in a War Department Battle Casualty Report of July 1947 with these remarks: "Statement of SGT Neil that SGT East was drowned the morning of the invasion of Sicily, which the records show occurred on 10 JUL 43." This means that I can confirm that 26 men drowned at Punta Braccetta on 10 July 1943 - 25 men of the 157th Infantry Regiment and one sailor from the USS Thomas Jefferson. Dave
Hey Dave- You know what, I'm guessing you're the same Dave who provided me with some info through the 45th Yahoo group emails, am I right? I recently joined this forum to see what else I could learn. Anyway, I was the guy who asked about his grandfather who served with the 157th's AT company a few months back. My grandfather was Emil Bruni, and he did survive the war. Unfortunately, you weren't able to find his name mentioned anywhere, and I have not been able to make much progress either. Peter
