Some people who visit this site are looking for information on an individual service member. This site focuses on divisions and regiments, not individuals. This guide shows how to research a soldier yourself, using free government records wherever possible.
The goal is to learn the soldier's unit, down to the company if you can. Once you know that someone served in, say, Company B of the 16th Infantry Regiment, you can follow that company day by day and read the unit's history on this site.
One warning before you begin. A fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis on July 12, 1973, destroyed about 80 percent of the Army personnel files for soldiers discharged between November 1, 1912, and January 1, 1960. Most World War II Army files are gone. The steps below work around that loss. The Archives tells the story on its page about the 1973 fire.
Start at home. The most useful single document is the discharge paper, which for most enlisted soldiers was War Department form WD AGO 53-55. It lists the serial number, the unit at the time of discharge, the military specialty, the campaigns, the decorations, and the dates of departure and return.
If no one in the family has it, try the recorder or clerk of the county where the soldier lived after the war. Many veterans filed a copy there when they came home.
Look also for letters and envelopes, which often carry the company and regiment in the return address. Photographs may show a shoulder patch. Newspaper clippings, an obituary, and the grave marker can each add a detail.
A caution: a discharge names the last unit the soldier belonged to. Many were transferred to a different unit for the trip home, so it may not be the unit they fought with.
The National Archives has a free online file of about nine million Army enlistment records from 1938 to 1946. Search it at Access to Archival Databases, under World War II.
A record gives the serial number, the date and place of enlistment, the county of residence, the year of birth, and the civilian occupation. The serial number is worth having. Most later records ask for it.
The file has limits. It does not name the soldier's unit. It leaves out officers. It is incomplete, and it contains errors from the way the original punch cards were converted, so try other spellings if a name does not turn up.
Ask for the file even though it probably burned. Some survived. When one did not, the records center tries to rebuild the basics from other sources, such as pay vouchers, Veterans Administration claim files, Selective Service records, and military hospital records.
World War II personnel files are archival and open to anyone, not only next of kin. How you ask depends on who you are. A veteran, or the next of kin of a deceased veteran, may request the file online through eVetRecs. Everyone else should mail or fax Standard Form 180 to the National Personnel Records Center. Either way, give the soldier's full name, serial number, branch, dates of service, and date and place of birth. The Archives explains the process on its military service records page.
The Archives charges a copying fee for these older files. As of November 2026 it was $25 for a file of five pages or fewer and $70 for a longer one. Fees change, so confirm the current amount on the Archives' site before you pay. Response times vary widely and are not guaranteed. The Archives asks that you wait at least 90 days before following up.
If the veteran has died and ever filed a benefit or insurance claim with the Veterans Administration, a separate claim file may exist. Where it is depends on when the claim closed. The National Archives at St. Louis holds the older closed files; a claim that was not closed before 1955 may be in a Federal records center and may still belong to the VA. The Archives describes these under "Deceased Veterans Claim Files" on its frequently requested records page. A request needs the veteran's full name, the claim number if you have it, dates of service, dates and places of birth and death, and the serial number.
Every company in the Army filed a morning report each day. It recorded who joined, who left, and who was wounded, killed, promoted, or sent to the hospital, and it usually said where the unit was. These reports survived the fire, and they are the best substitute for a lost personnel file.
Morning reports are filed by unit and date, not by name. To use them you need the unit down to the company and an approximate date, which is why the first three steps come first. Start from a date you know, such as the day the soldier was wounded or discharged, and work backward. Each transfer entry names the unit a soldier came from.
The National Archives is putting the World War II morning reports online in its catalog. Coverage is still partial, so check whether your unit and dates are there. If they are not, you can read the microfilm by appointment at the Archives' research room in St. Louis. The Archives does not search morning reports by mail; see its page on morning reports and unit rosters.
Do not spend time looking for unit rosters from 1944 through 1946. They were disposed of in the 1970s.
A death in service left more records than a safe return did.
Burial overseas. The American Battle Monuments Commission lists everyone buried, or named on the Tablets of the Missing, at its overseas cemeteries. The burial search on its site can be filtered by unit.
The casualty file. The Army created Individual Deceased Personnel Files for soldiers who died in service. Where a file survives, it usually establishes the unit and gives the details of the death and burial. The National Archives at St. Louis lists these files among its holdings. A request needs the soldier's full name, serial number, dates of service, and date and place of death.
The Honor List. In 1946 the War Department published a list of its dead and missing, arranged by state and county. It gives the name, serial number, rank, and type of casualty, but not the unit.
Once you know the unit, you can find out where it went and what it did. Start with the division and regiment pages on this site, which summarize each unit's campaigns.
For more detail, the National Archives at College Park, Maryland, holds the Army's operational records from the war: after-action reports, unit journals, and general orders. General orders are worth a look because they name the soldiers who received awards.
You can hire someone to do this work. The National Archives keeps a list of independent researchers. Firms such as Golden Arrow Research specialize in rebuilding a soldier's service from morning reports, and the National WWII Museum offers a research service of its own.