WWII U.S. Dog Tags

[ObKrieger]

Carl Rahauser was born in Dover, Pennsylvania, on August 17th, 1921. He graduated from the Dover Area High School, where he was a member of several clubs and sports teams. He was 6’ tall, 180 pounds, and had gray eyes, blonde hair, and a light complexion.

Carl was drafted and entered service on November 10th, 1942, at Fort Meade, Maryland. His serial number was 33243573. He was assigned to Headquarters Company, 8th Infantry Division, and sailed for Ireland in December 1943. After a few months of training, the division landed on Utah Beach, France, in July 1944. Carl participated in the Battle of Normandy, the Battle of Brest, the Huertgen Forest campaign, the drove across the Roer and Rhine Rivers, and the liberation of Wöbbelin concentration camp in Germany. He was briefly hospitalized for measles in May 1945. He arrived back in the United States on July 10th, 1945, and was discharged as a staff sergeant on October 19th, 1945, at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.

Carl became a construction worker after the war. He died on March 1st, 1978, and is buried at Rohlers Mountain View Lutheran Cemetery in Dover, Pennsylvania.

Photo: Carl Rahauser in 1945

[MAP]

Great stuff and great to have you back.

The photo in your first post is interesting in that the soldier helping the wounded man on the ground seems to have a Luger or P-08 holster on his belt.

[Danmark]

Hey matey , LOOOONG time no see!!
Where do you find this info? I have a set to a Frank A Durst 0-2074361 and would like to research something about him - even return the tags to the family if they want them....
Dan

[reneblacky]

+1 as I have a few sets too

[ObKrieger]

Great to hear from you gentlemen as well! I have subscriptions to many of the standard research sites like Ancestry. Send me a PM with the names and serial numbers and I'd be happy to see what I can find. The unit is usually difficult to pinpoint but sometimes you get lucky.

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Casimir “Casey” Jadlowski was born in Chicago, Illinois, on March 8th, 1919. In 1940, he lived at 1012 N. Paulina Street, and worked at United Novelty Manufacturing Company. He was 5’9” tall, weighed 150 pounds, had blue eyes, brown hair, and a light complexion. Before the war, he was single, and had completed high school.

Casey was drafted and entered service at Camp Grant, Illinois, on January 12th, 1942. He was assigned serial number 36310587. He was initially in the coastal artillery corps as a member of the 254th AAA Searchlight Battalion. The need for anti-aircraft units had decreased significantly as the Luftwaffe crumbled, so combined with increased demand for infantry replacements, the 254th was disbanded in September 1944. Casey was reassigned to Camp Stewart, Georgia, to train as an infantry replacement. Sometime around January 1945, he made it to Europe, and was assigned to Company B, 60th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division, as a light machine gunner. He participated in the drive on the Rhine River, clearing the Ruhr Pocket, and the advance into the Harz Mountains, holding the line there when the war ended on May 8th, 1945. He then participated in the occupation of Germany, and sailed home on January 1st, 1946, with H&S Company, 1340th Engineer Combat Battalion. He was discharged on January 6th, 1946.

Casey lived in Chicago until his death on November 6th, 2000. His place of burial is unknown.

Photos:
-Casey Jadlowski (right) and a comrade at the company headquarters in occupied Germany, 1945
-Casey Jadlowski, probably sometime in 1942, as a corporal in the coastal artillery corps

[Danmark]

Thank you for the PM details on my tag Mo!!
For others, this is what ObKrieger found out for me....

Hi Dan, I had a go at researching Frank Durst and unfortunately couldn't find much. It's typically more difficult to find information on officers. He was probably Frank Alexander Durst, born July 14th, 1923 in Wheeling, West Virginia. By 1942 he lived at 125 N. 10th St. in Wheeling, and worked at the Wheeling Electric Company. He was also 5'9", 140 pounds, had blue eyes, brown hair, and a light complexion. I also found a newspaper article for a wedding at Davis-Monthan Field in December 1944. He was mentioned as being the best man. He was most likely part of the Air Corps, either training as flight crew (many bombardment groups were trained at Davis-Monthan) or serving in an administrative capacity.


Well mate, here is a photo of the complete set ( with a Mary medal ) - Not sure whether it tells you any more??




Also, I found this on "Find a Grave"

Frank A. Durst of Washington, PA, age 87, died Friday, March 25, 2011. He was born July 14, 1923 in Wheeling, WV, the Son of the late Howard and Estella (Heffner) Durst. Husband of the late Dorothy B. (Baer) Durst. He is survived by three sons: Frank Durst III, Thomas Durst, and Gary Durst; one daughter, Susan Scherich; and three grandchildren: Arthur, Katheryn, and Michael Durst.

This might be my man - maybe the children or grandchildren may want these? but now what to do / how to do it....??

Cheers, Dan

[reneblacky]

Thank you for the PM details on my tag Mo!!

Here is a photo of the complete set ( with a Mary medal ) - Not sure whether it tells you any more??
And is the O prefix how you know he was an officer?



Cheers, Dan

O is for officer

[ObKrieger]

This might be my man - maybe the children or grandchildren may want these? but now what to do / how to do it....??

I'd be happy to help but interactions with the family can sometimes be problematic. Sent you a PM

O is for officer

I'll see what I can find and send you a PM

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Donald Hill was born in Sunman, Indiana on April 2nd, 1923. He was a high school graduate, and worked at the Kingan & Co. meat packing plant in Indianapolis. He was 6'1” tall, 180 pounds, and had blue eyes, blonde hair, and a dark complexion. He was married by 1943.

Donald was drafted and entered service on January 25th, 1943, in Louisville, Kentucky. He was given serial number 35695098, and assigned to Battery A, 616th Field Artillery Battalion (Pack), 10th Mountain Division, as a quartermaster supply technician. He trained with the division at Camp Hale, Colorado, and elsewhere in the United States, before shipping out to Italy in January 1945. He and the 616th, with 75mm and 105mm howitzers, supported the 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment in the North Appenines and Po Valley campaigns. He returned to the United States in August 1945, and was a staff sergeant at Camp Carson, Colorado, by September. He was discharged on November 11th, 1945.

After the war, Donald returned to Indiana and worked as a dairy farmer. He died on July 8th, 2002, and is buried at Zion Luthern Cemetery in New Palestine, Indiana.

Photo: Artillerymen of the 10th Mountain Division in action near Mt. Belvedere, January 1945

[reneblacky]

Thought I'd add in a couple of unopened packets.

[ObKrieger]

Alfred Kingston was born on September 5th, 1924, in Barre, Vermont. He was 6’ tall, 165 pounds, had blue eyes, brown hair, and a light complexion. He lived at 53 Sea View Drive, Warwick, Rhode Island, and was a construction worker by 1940. He had three years of high school, and was single.

Alfred was drafted on March 10th, 1943, and entered service in Providence, Rhode Island. He was assigned serial number 31291335. He trained as a paratrooper, and eventually ended up with the 161st Airborne Engineer Company, 503rd Parachute Regimental Combat Team, 11th Airborne Division. He participated in many bloody airborne assaults in the South Pacific with the 503rd PRCT, most notably the Corregidor operation in February 1945. The South Pacific was not kind to him, as he was hospitalized three times for skin disease, earaches, and abdominal pain, in 1944 and 1945. He was honorably discharged as a private following the end of the war.

Of all of the tags in my collection, Alfred was the only GI who was still alive when I acquired his dog tag in 2017. Without evidence that he had died, I believed he was still alive, and made several failed attempts to contact him that year. Sadly, I heard nothing until a more recent online search revealed he passed away on December 18th, 2018, at 94 years old. His burial location is unknown to me.

Photo: Alfred J. Kingston and the other Rhode Islanders of the 161st AEC in 1945