Help in finding a D Day veteran's unit

Excellent research, guys. Very well done.

 

When I grow up I want to be as good at research as Natman--great work
Dave

 

Natman is amazing!

I promised some time ago some pictures of the Wheaton Victory, the troop ship I believe my father in law sailed home on. The pictures are on Flickr

Wheaton Victory - a set on Flickr

As his separation report shows a date of departure of 23 July 1946 and separation in Fort Dix on 7 August 1946 it is safe to assume the pictures were taken some time between then. The pictures are still in the original envelope which is postmarked Tacoma, WA on 17 August 1946 so these pictures must show the ship arriving in the US. It may well have left from Liverpool in England. The guys certainly look happy!

Let me know if I should post the link elsewhere in any other appropriate forum.

 

For the seriously wounded, having the hospital process orders the Purple Heart only makes sense. I think those PH from the Regiment are for the lightly wounded that were not evacuated.

You da man, Natman!!!!

 

You guys are too kind. But, I feel like I'm getting set up for a fall!!!!

Those Wheaton Victory pix are great. I looked up the tug company, Card Towing Line; no real information available but they were based in New York City so they docked somewhere in the area. There are lots of African-American troops in pix 8, 9, 16 and 17. I've been working, slowly, on the 614th Tank Destroyer Battalion page on Wikipedia this year. They were an A-A unit so it was interesting to see these photos. Thanks for posting the link.

I have another plan if I don't hear from the guy in France within the next couple days so don't go away, Colin.

 

You have got me hooked so I have no intention of going away!!!

 

I would like to suggest that you go to the 90th ID website and register on the Forum (upper left column). A new page will open where you can signup. Start a thread in the "I'm looking for ..." section in the Discussion Area (little past half-way down the page). I would title it with Dominic's name/regiment. Maybe summarize what you know and that you're trying to find out about his wounding and what happened after that, along with his company, etc. There are three guys who post regularly; Norm, Tristan and Vincent. I know they have access to morning reports which should provide good info and Norm is a researcher at the NPRC. Tristan is the guy I was trying to contact; could be my contact info is no longer valid?

Let me know if you have any questions about this. Good luck!

 

Natman - I'll register and ask further questions there. Thanks for the suggestion and many many thanks for all the help you have provided. I, and my wife, are truly grateful.

 

Well - thanks to Steve's suggestion I've been in touch with the Assistant Historian of the 90th Division - and it's been incredibly illuminating.

He has copies of the morning reports for Company B of the 359th. These show they landed on Utah beach having sailed over on the LCI 326 a picture of which I'm told used to feature in the Utah Beach Museum. The morning reports then show on June 9th a number of the Company being injured with my father in law's name listed as SWA and then evacuated. It doesn't however say where he was evacuated to so the trail runs cold at that point. Following the reports from the 6th to the 9th on a map I can see where the Company moved to so next time we are in France we can follow his movements.

He also pointed me to a picture of him that's up on their web site taken at Fort Dix before they travelled to Europe. Here's the link. He's the fourth from the left in the second row.

New Page 1

Many thanks to Norm Richards for all his help.

 

That's great news! It's good to finally be able to see a picture of your FIL. Thanks for sharing this new info.

 

Colin-That's great you've been able to fill in the blanks regarding Dominic. That is a high quality photo. The morning reports I have for my Dad's unit have a number of instances where someone was moved from duty to wounded/injured/sick/etc and then there's a later entry indicating they were moved to an Evac Hospital or something similar and dropped from assignment to the company. One guy I was just looking at originally left on the 4th, going to the divisional Med Battalion, and later was moved to an Evac Hosp and dropped from assignment on the 11th. Do you know if Norm looked thru later dates in case there's a follow-up entry? If not, it might be worth the effort.

 

I don't know for sure if the later reports were looked through but I'm going to ask. Many thanks for the tip.

 

My father was with Company C, 1st Battalion, 358th Infantry Regiment, 90th Infantry Division and his Purple Heart was issued by the 53rd General Hospital in England where he was sent for plastic surgery. I've also seen some PHs issued by the 109th Evacuation Hospital.
Darryl

 

If Norm says that he was in Company B then that would be a unit of the 1st Battalion, 359th Infantry Regiment.
Darryl

 

On his Report of Separation DEML in Box 4 means "Detached Enlisted Men's List"
Darryl

 

You should write to the Department of the Army - Army Human Resources Command in Ft. Knox, Kentucky to get his Bronze Star Medal that he would be authorized to wear based on him having earned the CIB. His European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal would have a bronze arrowhead and one bronze star attachments.
Darryl

 

Thank you for this. I'll confess that along with the PH are a number of ribbon strips which I am unable to work out what they mean. I'll certainly follow up on the Bronze Star medal as well as try and work out what all the ribbon strips mean.I understand that there is no further mention of Dominic in later morning reports so the the trail goes a bit cold after his evacuation from the front line.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I've attached a picture of the medals and ribbons.

The Purple Heart is obvious but do the purple ribbons go along with the medal? Sorry if that's a dumb question but I'm guessing these would be ribbons he would wear all the time whereas the medal would only be worn at particular times.

Similarly the red ribbons with the three white stripes would go along with the other medal I'm assuming?

 

The one at lower right is the Good Conduct medal. And the ribbons do go with the the corresponding medal. I can't really tell what that is in the upper right?