I am 72 years old and am trying to recreat a family history for my
grandchildren.  My brother was killed in action in the Army Air Force
in WW2.  I was a youngester at the time.  All my dad's records have
been lost.  How do I find the details of his service and death?  I
have the following data:

Name:  David Earl Wiesner
Rank:  Sgt
ASN:  32380971
Date of Death:  09/06/43
Organization:  602 Bomber

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 23 May 2005 19:30 PDT

Cliff,

I could not find any information on your brother's death, but I did
come across the following:


Enlistment information:  

David Wiesner enlisted in Buffalo, NY on July 23, 1942 at the age of
22.  His actual enlistment record, available online from the National
Archives, is as follows:




ARMY SERIAL NUMBER  32380971        
NAME  WIESNER#DAVID#E#########        
RESIDENCE: STATE  23   NEW YORK    
RESIDENCE: COUNTY  029   ERIE    
PLACE OF ENLISTMENT  2309   BUFFALO NEW YORK    
DATE OF ENLISTMENT DAY  23        
DATE OF ENLISTMENT MONTH  07        
DATE OF ENLISTMENT YEAR  42        
GRADE: ALPHA DESIGNATION  PV3#   Undefined Code    
GRADE: CODE  8   Private    
BRANCH: ALPHA DESIGNATION  BI#   Branch Immaterial - Warrant Officers, USA    
BRANCH: CODE  00   Branch Immaterial - Warrant Officers, USA    
FIELD USE AS DESIRED  #        
TERM OF ENLISTMENT  5   Enlistment for the duration of the War or
other emergency, plus six months, subject to the discretion of the
President or otherwise according to law
LONGEVITY  ###        
SOURCE OF ARMY PERSONNEL  0   Civil Life    
NATIVITY  23   NEW YORK    
YEAR OF BIRTH  20        
RACE AND CITIZENSHIP  1   White, citizen    
EDUCATION  2   2 years of high school    
CIVILIAN OCCUPATION  508   OPTICIAN    
MARITAL STATUS  6   Single, without dependents    
COMPONENT OF THE ARMY  7   Selectees (Enlisted Men)    
CARD NUMBER  #        
BOX NUMBER  0505        
FILM REEL NUMBER  2.169   


[the numbers in the above list are mostly codes for the words used, eg
"23" indicates born in NY]



===============


Some personal memoirs of members of the 602 Squadron (of Spitfires, if
I'm reading it correctly) can be found here:


http://www.398th.org/History_Personal/Index_PersonalHistories.html


There are a number of contacts listed at this site.  You might want to
try contacting some of them; it's not unheard of to come across
someone who may have known your brother, and at the very least, they
may know of additional sources of information.


===============

Lastly, my colleague missy-ga provided excellent information a few
years ago on obtaining official Army service records.  You can see her
answer here:
 

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=53448


You should begin pursuing the steps she lays out to see if you can
obtain an official copy of your brother's service record from the
National Archives.


I wish I could have provided you an answer to your question, but
hopefully the information here will be of some help.

Good luck.

pafalafa-ga

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 04 Jun 2005 05:24 PDT

Hello Cliff,

Just checking in.  Did you have a chance to look over the information
I provided?  Was any of it useful?

pafalafa-ga