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Exploring Army & Army Air Forces Morning Reports

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Company Morning Reports will help you reconstruct military service whether or not the OMPF (service file) burned.

In August 2018, I participated in a webinar with DearMyrtle, U.S. Military: Morning Reports, discussing Company Morning Reports for the Army and Army Air Forces for WWII. While our focus was WWII, the information we discussed also applies to WWI, Korea, and Vietnam.

After you watch the video, we encourage you to read why these reports are so valuable, here are a few articles.

Important! There are many military research firms around today offering ‘Click this item/price and add to cart services. Be aware that these firms will not reconstruct service for you and will only give you what you think you require. When you do not know exactly what you require, you often end up wasting a lot of money on records that have nothing to do with your service member’s service. There is a process to reconstructing military service properly.

We are the only firm that offers full service research customized to your particular project. Read our article When NOT to Hire a Genealogical or Military Record Retriever to learn more.

To learn more about Jennifer and how we can help you research and tell your WWI, WWII, Korea, or Vietnam family member’s story, check out our updated ABOUT US page.

© 2018 World War II Research and Writing Center

5 Reasons Why You Must Have Army and Air Force Company Morning Reports

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james-in-uniformI speak to many people on a daily basis about Army and Air Force research in the U.S. and Europe. Everyone is asking the same question. How can I find out where my soldier or Airman was every day? His OMPF (service file) burned in 1973.

The answer is simple. You start with Company Morning Reports. Here are 5 reasons you need these records.

  1. Company Morning Reports will help you reconstruct a soldier’s service, allowing you to document where he was every day he was in a company in a particular unit. You will also know when he changed units so you can continue tracing his service.
  2. Morning Reports document illness and wounds and if the clerk documented things, what field hospital or other hospital he was sent to.
  3. You’ll see changes in rank, MOS (job), transfers to temporary duty assignments so you know where he was at all times. Often, men were sent to DS (detached service) to help another unit. In those moments you also want to consult the other unit’s records to learn what was happening. This changes the soldier’s war experience.
  4. Changes in status to MIA, POW, KIA are also listed.
  5. Awards may be listed in Morning Reports if the clerk added that information. Many people want to know when or why a soldier received a specific award or decoration. This is one resource to help you discover that information and the often elusive General Order (GO) number.

Important! In a recent conversation on Facebook, someone posted they couldn’t trace their soldier every day, I suggested Morning Reports. Their response was they were working with DPAA because their soldier was still MIA and DPAA had provided unit level records and told them the OMPF burned. I responded that DPAA didn’t provide all the information possible and Morning Reports are the answer.

DPAA hardly uses Morning Reports or OMPFs in their research, from conversations I’ve had with them. It is not their job to reconstruct your soldier’s entire service history. Their job is to find details that document his MIA status in the hopes of locating the individual. They will not then provide you with the Morning Reports and details on service. If you want this information, you have to find it yourself or work with a researcher to locate this information. If they tell you it is impossible because the OMPF burned, they are wrong. You can retrace service without the OMPF.

Want to learn more about Morning Reports, how they can help your research, and how to obtain them? Read my articles:

Company Morning Reports

More on Company Morning Reports

You can also watch the NARA Genealogy Fair session on Morning Reports from October 2016. Download the slides/handouts.

What clues and information have you discovered in Morning Reports? Please share with us in the comments.

Can I help you with your research?

Are you ready to learn the bigger picture of your family member’s military service? Email us at info@wwiirwc.com to set up your free phone consultation today to discuss project options, fees, and time. You can also sign-up for our free newsletter.

Want More Resources?

Visit the WWII Education Website and explore my military research webinars. This pack comes with 14 pages of questions, checklists, and resources to help you start your military research (WWI – Vietnam).

Also explore my military research books.

© 2016 World War II Research and Writing Center

WWII Education – Honoring Our Soldiers Overseas

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Foundation group at book signingThe last several years I’ve been researching and writing my WWII books and programs, I’ve been working with members of Stichting Verenigde Adoptanten Amerikaanse Oorlogsgraven (Foundation United Adopters American War Graves) in the Netherlands. This group is responsible for two projects which honor our WWII Soldiers buried in American Battle Monument Commission (ABMC) cemeteries overseas. The members of this foundation are fantastic and we’ve had an excellent give and take of helping each other. I met many of them in person at the cemeteries and while traveling in Europe. This Foundation actively seeks information and photographs on all the soldiers buried at Margraten (Netherlands American Cemetery), Henri-Chapelle, and Ardennes ABMC cemeteries. They also assist researchers on both sides of the pond. It is a nice give and take of information and sharing of stories. Fields of Honor Database This project is a database containing photographs of the soldier’s grave and the soldier, if they have been located. It also contains basic information about the soldier obtained from primarily online sources or researchers. Faces of Margraten This project attempts to put a face with every name at the Netherlands American Cemetery at Margraten. I attended the Faces of Margraten in 2015. It was an amazing event honoring our soldiers. I was able to see photos for many soldiers I researched. How can you help?
  • Search the Fields of Honor Database to see what soldiers are from your state or for someone you know is buried there.
  • Pull together materials to submit to the volunteers at the foundation.
  • Talk to your local society about how it can help the foundation.
  • If you live in Europe and research WWII, purchase a copy of my book to support the foundation and learn step-by-step, how to research. Faces of War: Researching Your Adopted Soldier.
  • If you live in the U.S. and need assistance researching, Volumes 1 and 2 of Stories from the World War II Battlefield, are the only books on the market available which teach you step-by-step how to do WWII research.
  • Attend one of my WWII talks in the U.S. or Europe to learn how to research.

Can I help you with your research?

Are you ready to learn the bigger picture of your family member’s military service? Email us at info@wwiirwc.com to set up your free phone consultation today to discuss project options, fees, and time. You can also sign-up for our free newsletter and receive the Start Writing Your Military Story Today free! Are you following Jennifer and all her work on all her social media sites? Click the link to learn more and find different content. © 2016 World War II Research and Writing Center

WWII Education – Civilian Individual Deceased Personnel Files (IDPFs)

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Did you know a few civilians are buried in the American Battle Monument Commission (ABMC) Cemeteries overseas? While the cemeteries are primarily military personnel, there are a few civilians interred there. These civilians were often family members of service men and women serving overseas. Many are adults, but there are also a few babies and children. Some women in military service overseas gave birth to stillborn babies or lost their babies soon after birth. They were temporarily buried in military cemeteries. Most were repatriated. Baby Katherine Rothwell is buried in Ardennes. Her IDPF is heartbreaking. Several people in Europe have researched her story and that of her father.

When civilians were buried in the temporary cemeteries during the war, an Individual Deceased Personnel File (IDPF) was created for them.  IDPFs are commonly seen for military personnel, but most people do not think about them for civilians. Even if a civilian was later repatriated for burial in the U.S., there will still be an IDPF he was buried in a U.S. temporary cemetery.

How do you know if someone is a civilian? See the image for Alfred Chaskin. I researched him last year and visited his grave at Normandy American Cemetery. His entry on the ABMC database does not show a serial/service number or unit. Only his home state (listed as Enlisted Service From) and date of death.

ChaskingraveAlfred Chaskin

Buried: Normandy American Cemetery, Plot A Row 6 Grave 18

Died: 3 January 1944

Chaskin was an American with a Swiss ID card, living in France since 1912. He was interred during the war and died in a POW camp in Austria. Records in his file show a cranial autopsy was performed after his death due to lung cancer and brain cancer. An extensive tooth and bone chart exists in his file. The file also contains his hospital notes and autopsy findings.

Alfred’s IDPF is 114 pages long. You can read it and learn his story. You’ll see similar documents as what you find in a soldier’s IDPF. There are many handwritten letters from his daughter, who was living in Paris.

Read his IDPF.

Need to order the IDPF?

Read my article on the IDPF, what it contains, and how to obtain a copy.

Do you have questions? Please leave them in the comments.

© 2016 World War II Research and Writing Center

WWII Education – More on Company Morning Reports

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I recently wrote an article on Company Morning Reports. People asked me several questions about them, so here is a little more information on these valuable reports.

MorningReportImage2What do all those codes and abbreviations mean?

There are many codes and abbreviations on Morning Reports. Here are a few resources to help you decipher what you are looking at.

Why doesn’t information show up on the day it happened?

It is rare for the information of a soldier’s wound, Prisoner of War (POW) status, Missing In Action (MIA) status, Killed In Action (KIA) status, illness, or transfer (among other things) to appear on a report the day it happened. Word had to move up the line from the source (hospital, Red Cross, soldier’s buddies, Graves Registration Service, etc.) to the clerk creating the records. Always look past the day an event happened. In the case of one soldier I researched in the 2nd Infantry Division, he and three other men were KIA on 15 June 1944 in France. They did not appear on a Morning Report as KIA until 11 July 1944.

We need to remember during certain times, think major campaigns or battles, that many men were changing status due to wounds, POW, MIA, or KIA. Men were also coming into the companies to replace those who were no longer part of the company. The clerk had a lot of work to do each day to record all these changes. Throughout the chaos of battle, information also may have been lost or taken longer to reach the man in charge of the records.

Why do some Morning Reports not exist?

There are many reasons WWII records do not exist. They may include but are not limited to the following.

  • Fire
  • Flood/water damage
  • Weather
  • Chemicals or other spilled on the records
  • Records were in a vehicle, plane, ship, building which was destroyed during the war
  • Left behind when a unit moved and never recovered
  • Purposely destroyed by a unit during the war
  • Purposely destroyed by the archives after the war

Why is the quality bad or almost impossible to read the Morning Report?

Records were typed on a typewriter or handwritten. There were no computers then to keep track of everything. Records may have not been in the best condition after creation, let alone years later when they were microfilmed to be used by researchers. Some are terribly faded and almost unreadable. Others are in ok condition, and some are fantastic. You never know what you will get until you start looking. When the record is too damaged or illegible to move your research forward, look at unit records for the journals which document things that happened each day. They will not replace Company Morning Reports, especially if you need to trace service of your soldier, but will provide a more detailed record of events than may be on the report. They should also trace where a unit was each day.

How do we access these records?

You can hire a researcher to pull the records or you can visit the National Personnel Records Center yourself and go through the microfilm.

To learn more about Morning Reports, see my books Stories from the World War II Battlefield, which provide a more in-depth look at these records. You can also see several examples at the 80th Infantry Division website.

Can I help you with your research?

Are you ready to learn the bigger picture of your family member’s military service? Email us at info@wwiirwc.com to set up your free phone consultation today to discuss project options, fees, and time. You can also sign-up for our free newsletter.

Want More Resources?

Visit the WWII Education Website and explore my military research webinars. This pack comes with 14 pages of questions, checklists, and resources to help you start your military research (WWI – Vietnam).

© 2016 World War II Research and Writing Center