Thanks guys,
I had kind of a special interest in his grandfathers history because his grandfather and my uncle are not too dissimiliar. His grandfather was [ETO HQ] 997th Field Artillery, Corps. Level, while my uncle was 832nd Amphibious Group, Corps. Level [MTO HQ]. Overall, it was a VERY interesting history that his grandfather had. The whole sightseeing aspect kind of came to me as my uncle did the same thing right after the war was over. My uncle finished out in Salzburg, Austria an went sightseeing from Marseille, France.
My uncle has told me numerous times about how they rented out 12 Harleys WLA's and made a few bucks to sightseeing GI's and they went themselves to see, Spain, Italy, France, Belgium, Germany...he said they went all over God;s green Earth!..LOL...
Anywas, it wasn't easy, I had to look through a LOT of U.S. 7th Army stuff to find their deactivation date, I knew the 3rd Army had been deactivated earlier than the 7th Army. However, I have a lot of material dealing with the U.S. 7th Army as I'm a big 3rd ID historian and they were assigned VI Corps., 7th Army.
It was really fun though to do the research, it was kind of like being a detective. Put all the pieces together an it just all adds up!
Regards,
MARNE
P.S.....
Rob,
Did your grandfather have two or four overseas bars? If he came into theatre in April 18th, 1944 and was there till December 7th, 1945....he should only have three hash marks as he was only "in theatre" for about eighteen months...But, then again if he has four, they might have given him his fourth mark since he was within his fourth 6 month period but, I've never heard of that. However, it is totally possible!