Just want to introduce myself

My name is Zach Cooper. My grandfather was a Belgian-American who enlisted on June 26, 1944 at Fort Benjamin Harrison. Mainly joined to gather more information on what he did during the war.

 

Welcome Zach , I hope you'll find what you are looking for

 

Zach, welcome to the forum and enjoy!

 

Welcome and good luck with your search

 

Hey, Zach, thanks for joining.

Do you know what unit your grandfather was in?

 

Hello Zach--Like Lou said, tell us what you know and what you'd like to know and we'll dust off the old books and get you started. Think you'll love it here.

 

Welcome to the forums, Zach.

 

Welcome, Zach! We'd love to help you achieve your goal and maybe even exceed it. Do you have any more info about your grandfather and his service?

 

Welcome, Zach!

 

Welcome Zach !

Here's a cool site for Ft. Harrison.

Fort Benjamin Harrison

 

Welcome Zach....

 

Well like I said he enlisted at Fort Benjamin Harrison in June of '44, I found a naturalization document that he filled out in Oct. '44 at Fort Mcclellan Alabama. That document has him in a IRTC and his commanding officer was a Sidney Solovinsky. He was discharged as a member of the Military Police Detachment Section I/1 1463rd Service Command Unit. His name was Charles L. Coopman, belgian name was Karel.

 

Welcome,

Interesting late war enlistee. No surprise being sent to the Infantry Replacement Training Center, Fort MacClellen. There was a shortage of infantrymen by this stage of the war. I've seen for other soldiers the Army wants to naturalize a foreign born soldier after training but before sending them overseas. Did he serve overseas?

A Service Command Unit was a regional command in the continental US for US Army Service Forces. I've seen where soldiers recovering from wounds (discharged from hospital) were sent to these units to finish out their time before discharge. Regretfully many discharge documents for these soldiers show an SCU and not the unit they served with when they were wounded.

Good Luck, hope we can help.

 

Thank you Earthican, its interesting you say that is where injured soldiers finished there time because on his naturalization form it says scar on back of neck and head. My father and his siblings have told me that he had a metal plate in his head and made multiple trips to the VA Hospital during there childhood. I would share the story but I'm afraid you have all heard it before and frankly I have my doubts.

 

Oh we are never bored by veterans stories or the valiant attempts by relatives to piece their story back together. We go ga-ga over photos and documents. We share your frustrations over a lack of information or bureaucratic mix-ups. We're a library, support group and cheering section.

If the Naturalization form is before he went overseas then those scars might be pre-war (I understand the 1930's farm was a dangerous place).

You might want to start another thread in the "Military Service record & Genealogical Research" section with a summary of what you know and what you want to know.

 

Welcome Zack, and as others have said we will try to help in any way we can, "Earthican" is a great source and help in these fields.