Belgian Grandfather, looking for info

My grandfather Charles L. Coopman enlisted in June of '44 at Fort Benjamin Harrison, he was 33 years old. He was then moved to Fort Mcclellan in October of '44 where he filled out a Naturalization form and he was a member of a IRTC Regiment. The only other thing that I have is a discharge paper that was given to him in Colorado. He was discharged as a member of Military Police Detachment 1/I 1463rd Service Command Unit. My mission is to find out if he went overseas like my dad and his siblings were told. My dad remembers going to the VA Hospital with him multiple times because a metal plate in his head that he received during or after the war. Any help would be much appreciated, thank you

 

I checked one discharge document posted here and it shows overseas service, Block 36. No details but it's a start.

Also the award of a Purple Heart would indicate a wound, Block 33.

Discharge documents are not the most accurate, they might leave unknown information blank.


You can request a copy of his personnel record from here (a copy fee might apply).

Other Methods to Obtain Military Service Records

You do not have to be Next of Kin if it is 65 years since his discharge. A fire in the 1970's destroyed many WWII era records so it's a long shot.


Any photo's of him in uniform? Patches can help ID his unit. If you are leery of posting photos or documents you can crop a photo or type parts of the document verbatim.

 

You checked a discharge document posted here? What do you mean by block 33 and 36? My dad sent a request for any information from archives.gov years ago and didn't receive anything, we will try again. I just left a message with our VA Hospital because I know he made many trips there. My dad and his siblings never saw any photos or any of his military things, he kept it very secret.

 

Post #17 of this thread has a WWII discharge document. Similar to a modern DD-214. Each section of the form has a title and block number (hard to read, but better than nothing).

33. Decorations and Citations
36. Service Outside Continental US and Return

http://www.ww2f.com/military-servic...oth-376th-pfab-82nd-airborne-suggestions.html

 

Wow that discharge form is not what I have. Where can I find that discharge document? The one I have is very simple that was filed here in Polk County Iowa's Recorder's office.

 

yeah mine says right at the top its a certificate in Lieu of lost or destroyed, that cant be good

 

That discharge form that you showed me, does that come from NARA? It's not something that would have been burned in St. Louis?

 

Hi zcoop80,

I'll answer for Earthican if it's okay, since I am the one who got the discharge document (called an AGO Form 55 and sometimes misconstrued as a DD-214, which replaced it in the 1950s) that is being used as an example for you--

I got it from NARA, yes. I made the request via mail using their Standard Form 180. I was lucky enough to obtain it, as most (80% or so) of US Army enlisted records were destroyed in the fire of 1973. So, unfortunately it is in fact likely that the records on your grandfather were burned up. BUT...

You never know until you try. Make the request to NARA as a first step. If it doesn't work, then there MAY be other ways to get what you are looking for.

You said you got a discharge from the local county recorder's office--what does it look like? A pic would help a lot. Can you post one?

You mention that he spent a good deal of time at the local VA hospital; that is another potential source of information; calling it is a good idea, which you have done--excellent. Follow up with them and see if they have information on your grandfather; you might be able to look at it under FOIA (not sure about that but you can always check). Be polite and nice on the phone, you catch more flies with honey... ;o)

The key to this stuff is persistence. I look forward to seeing the results of your efforts!

Cheers.

 

I'm in the process of filling out the form for NARA right now. I called the VA hospital and they need a letter stating who I am and what I'm looking for, so I will do that soon. I will try and post a picture of his recorded discharge paper. Is there anyone that would have knowledge on why a 33 year old Belgian man would enlist in the Army? Just trying to get an idea of why he did it and if the Army had uses for someone like him.

 

I m trying to load an image but it is a pdf on my computer.

 

It would take deeper research to figure out the complete status of resident aliens in the 1940's, but this website seems to indicate that "nondeclarant aliens" would be deferred from military service. So perhaps your grandfather declared his intention to become a citizen. That would seem to make him available for "the Draft". So perhaps he did not volunteer, per se.

CLASSIFICATIONS

You should be able to attach a pdf. It will just show up as an attachment with hyper-link text of the file name. There will not be an image preview.

 

Convert it to a jpg first (there are several easy ways to do this) and upload it afterwards.

 

This is what I have, dont mind the extra information about his death
View attachment 26942

 

Good call Earthican--by his his ASN it sure looks like he was a draftee.

Zcoop, thanks for posting that! Sorry about your grandfather's unfortunate and untimely death!

You weren't kidding when you said the discharge document you had was very "simple". I think (although I admittedly don't know much--the experts on this forum do wonders with not much) your NARA and VA requests are the best leads for you at this point. Keep working on those and see what they yield.

 

By looking at his ASN you think he was drafted? What I found on NARA shows that he enlisted.

 

The beginning number '3' in his ASN indicates that he was a draftee into the "National Army". The second number '5' shows what region of the country he entered service from. A '5' indicates Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana or Kentucky.

Here is a Wikipedia article on how it worked.

 

So if he was drafted would there be a draft card? Unless it was included in the fire.

 

Here is the enlistment information from the NARA database.

NARA - AAD - Display Full Records - Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, ca. 1938 - 1946 (Enlistment Records)

 

Technically volunteer enlistments ended in 1943. One could volunteer, but that would just put them at the top of the list for "draft notices".

So it appears he requested a Honorable Discharge Certificate in 1953 (most likely to replace lost documents) and had it recorded at the local court house in 1957.

The only new information is his discharge date on 22 December 1945. That is consistent with being wounded fall 1944 or winter/spring/summer 1945 and a lengthy recovery. But does not rule out being found not fit for overseas service (too old maybe). However the VA visits suggest strongly that he had a severe injury connected with service.

Letters written from his time in the service could have a return address with his unit. Also, home town newspapers might have small pieces about his service.

I assume you have Internet searched his name with related search terms. Some unit association websites have unit rosters posted (very much a long shot).

I'll think on it a little more.