Buddy
Search Tips Over the
past 24 years, we have identified over 3,000
veterans of the 77th Artillery Regiment, and located
about 2,500 of those same vets. Here are the primary
methods we've used with much success:
PERSONAL CONTACT
One of the first questions to ask
anyone you find is, "do you remember any names, or
do you know where anyone is today?" This is an easy
way to quickly double your list.
OLD LETTERS & PHOTOGRAPHS
Letters home from Vietnam often
mentioned buddies - even naming their home towns.
Sometimes we wrote names on the back of photographs
identifying the guys in the picture. Are any still
sitting around - perhaps in your folks' or another
relative's papers?
ROSTERS & ORDERS
Did you keep a roster or a journal
of the unit's moves? When we received promotion, purple
heart, R&R, etc. orders, they usually contained the
names of others serving with us. Have you dug out those
old orders lately for clues? HINT: If you were in Vietnam
after 1967, those orders contain Social Security Numbers,
which we can convert to identify the state they were
issued in.
INTERNET
There are numerous resources on the internet for
locating others. My favorite is http://www.zabasearch.com.
This site sometimes include birth date, so even some common names can
be pinned down. Another is http://www.whowhere.com.
Additionally, there are many subscription sites that use utility,
court, voter registration, and credit records to provide
addresses. I recommend http://www.ussearch.com.
MORNING REPORTS
Army units kept daily rosters (DA
form 1) on the status of each person assigned. These
records were microfiched, and can be obtained for a
SPECIFIC battery, for SPECIFIC days (usually requested to
support a VA claim) from: https://www.archives.gov/personnel-records-center
National
Records Center
1 Archives Dr
St. Louis, MO 63138
(Be patient - it can take
up to a year for them to
respond!)
CLICK HERE
FOR UNIT ROSTERS
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