I'm trying to track down the military history of my uncle, Albert Lee. The only information I have is as follows; In the Army from 7 Aug 1942 to 14 Nov 1945. His headstone reads; ALBERT LEE SGT HQ DET 146 REPL BN WWII MARCH 11 1912 JULY 16 1960 I cant find anything in Fold3 or Ancestry. Any help or leads would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Danny
Have a look at this thread. http://www.ww2f.com/topic/13562-requesting-copies-of-military-personnel-records/ Also, this particular forum contains many requests like yours and you will find lots of tips on how to get the information you're looking for: http://www.ww2f.com/forum/34-military-service-records-genealogical-research/
Getting records from the archives is a major task these days. In 2008, it took 10 months to get my dad's. i currently have a request for my uncle's, his brother. I've been waiting for just over 18 months, including 2 follow-up requests with their search number and no results. I hesitate to put in a request for this uncle until I have results from the other.
As someone who initially went the National Archives route, I can appreciate your frustration with the delays. I never received much from them since my relative's records were destroyed in the fire (I did receive VA medical records). Another avenue you can explore is contact your uncle's hometown registrar's office (clerk's office, records office, whatever it might be called in that municipality) and ask them where the old DD214s from WW2 are stored and who has custody of them. Most veterans upon returning from the war ended up filing a copy with their local clerk's office, for various reasons, and a huge number of these records still exist today in local archives across the country. Check it out.
I'm in the process of doing exactly that. I've run into so many brick walls in all my relatives researches that i finally paid for a search on my dad. I was very satisfied with that. It did have some duplicate material from my own search. Paying for research on all my uncles is out of the question. Being retired, I have a lot of time. It's how I spend most of my days, sitting here looking and re-looking. I was hoping by a remote chance that someone in this forum might know of the 146th Replacement Bn.
Replacement units are a bit of a dead end when it comes to researching WWII service. Fold3 does have some records related to the replacement units in the ETO, but they very rarely mention individual soldiers. When they do, they are soldiers permanently assigned to the unit. At the end of the War, some Replacement units were used to handle the massive project of discharging hundreds of thousands of soldiers. If you uncle was discharged through a Replacement Battalion, that unit may have ended up on his discharge paper. That was not unusual. While you're on the hometown track, you may also want to try the local newspaper archives. Early in the USA' involvement in WWII, 1942 to early 1943, operational security was not always observed. I have found news articles and lists of soldiers which mention the unit to which they were assigned. Later in the war, unit info is rarely given. Local historical or genealogical societies are the best bet. The down side to WWII ear newspapers is that they don't always get the unit names right, so it does need to be confirmed through other means. However, it may give you a place to start.
It's not much help, but the 146th doesn't show up on a 1 Jun 45 ETO unit list, so he didn't come back from there with that unit. His discharge would, of course, show any overseas service date ranges along with theater. Stanton shows a document titled Army Organizational Card. It's a summary of a unit's organization, movements, and stations. You should be able to get that from College Park pretty easily if you conclude the 146th was more than a placeholder unit. Ultimately, a long slog through the Morning Reports is the only way using army wartime records. 3+ years seems a long time to serve without accumulating enough points for discharge if he spent any considerable time overseas, but it's only a guess without knowing details about dependents. I don't have the points formula handy; maybe someone can provide it to you. Good luck. Ooops! One last thought: don't overlook a newspaper obituary. A family member may have known the unit he spent the most time in or mentioned a location in the obit.
I've been scouring for information with very minimal success. ND isnt the best source for online records & publications. Years ago, when I first started researching, I mainly concentrated on my dad. I made a few notes along the way when I saw something for another relative, planning to go back later. In my notes for Albert, I saw somewhere that referenced him in India on 4/13/44 but I cant find it again. Nor did I make a note where I found it.... still looking.. If this is true, he wasnt part of the ETO. I appreciate the feedback
When I couldn't find any mention of the 146th on Fold3, it did occur to me that he may have been in the PTO or the CBI. The Replacement System records on Fold3 are from the WWII European Theater Army Records. I didn't realize your uncle was from North Dakota.
