Searching Army Records (find, database, charge, free)

[STLCardsBlues1989]

My Grandpa was born in 1933 and died in 2004. He was in the Army and served in Germany around 1952-1953. He fixed planes. He served during Korea, but he never went to Korea. The Army was not his career, though. He was just in it when he was young.

Anyway, I was looking at his Army pictures. There were 6 or 7 pictures of him with other soldiers. I've tried looking these guys up on Family Search or Findagrave, but not having birth or death dates or knowing where they were from, I haven't gotten far.

I don't know if these guys are alive or dead. I've just been kind of curious.

Is there a free army database I can search? I mostly want to know their birth dates, death dates, and where they were from. I'm just kind of curious who they are/were.

Also one guy in the picture was Canadian. I don't know if there's a Canadian database or not.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[PA2UK]

I can search Ancestry.com for you if you give me their names (private message me if you don't want to publicly name them) - do they look about the same age as your grandfather? I can search for an approximate birth year by putting in 1933 and then tell it to give/take 10 years either way.

[suzy_q2010]

Originally Posted by STLCardsBlues1989

My Grandpa was born in 1933 and died in 2004. He was in the Army and served in Germany around 1952-1953. He fixed planes. He served during Korea, but he never went to Korea. The Army was not his career, though. He was just in it when he was young.

Anyway, I was looking at his Army pictures. There were 6 or 7 pictures of him with other soldiers. I've tried looking these guys up on Family Search or Findagrave, but not having birth or death dates or knowing where they were from, I haven't gotten far.

I don't know if these guys are alive or dead. I've just been kind of curious.

Is there a free army database I can search? I mostly want to know their birth dates, death dates, and where they were from. I'm just kind of curious who they are/were.

Also one guy in the picture was Canadian. I don't know if there's a Canadian database or not.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Do you know what unit your grandpa was in?

There may be a sort of "alumni association" for it.

If you have it, Google the unit.

If you do not have it, look for his discharge papers:

Start Your Military Service Record (DD Form 214) Request

His records may have been affected by the St. Louis fire:

1973 Fire

Once you know what unit he served with, the National Archives might have info for you.

Was he stationed in Berlin?

http://www.western-allies-berlin.com...s-army/us-army

http://www.berlinveterans.com/index.shtml

[STLCardsBlues1989]

I'll have to ask my Grandma what unit he was in. She has all that information.

PA2UK helped me by giving me some information. She gave me the matches Ancestry had for their names. Some of the names had multiple people with that name. However, her information helped me narrow it down. I think I've found the birth and death dates for a few of them anyway. I know some I might not be able to find.

Grandpa was stationed in various places. He was in the Army, but he worked on planes on Air Force bases in Germany. I think he drove a bus in Stuttgart. He was also stationed in Bremerhaven at one point.

I'll ask my Grandma for more information tomorrow.