🔗=============> The WWII Dead Module - Major Submodules <============🔗
Roster Format Ancillary Locality Land-Air-Sea Dead
Service Data Addenda Sources Outliers Additions
––––––––––– links to Roster Addenda pages appear below –––––––––––––
bigpigeon.us webpage WWII Dead > Roster Addenda, © 2024 by Robert A. Christiansen, updated 23 Jan 2024.
Links to Big Pigeon's WWII Dead > Roster Addenda webpages:
- Awards for Valor - incomplete - roster members who received Silver Star, Navy Cross, or Medal of Honor.
- Members Not in St. Paul's - roster & ancillary members who are not in my private St. Paul's database.
- Aggregate Roster Data - statistical summaries of roster & ancillary member data.
Why the Pottawattamie Area WWII Dead Roster
While researching my home town of Avoca, Iowa, I found that some World War II deaths were missing from sources such as family histories or family trees.
It troubled me that anyone who died while serving their country, dying distant from family and usually in some combination of misery, filth, pain or terror, might be forgotten. Most war dead did not even have children to preserve their memory; some were as young as 18. This I began an on-line roster to preserve key information about the Pottawattamie area WWII dead. This roster and associated material occupies the WWII Dead module of my nine-module Big Pigeon website. The roster records themselves are organized alphabetically and occupy 24 webpages in WWII Dead > Roster Records.
Around 100 Pottawattamie area individuals served during WWII, were separated from service, and then died in the immediate postwar period no later than 1950. These veterans are found in WWII Dead > Ancillary Records, rather than WWII Dead > Roster Records.
I was fortunate - few areas in the United States have the on-line resources sufficient to build a roster like this.
It troubled me that anyone who died while serving their country, dying distant from family and usually in some combination of misery, filth, pain or terror, might be forgotten. Most war dead did not even have children to preserve their memory; some were as young as 18. This I began an on-line roster to preserve key information about the Pottawattamie area WWII dead. This roster and associated material occupies the WWII Dead module of my nine-module Big Pigeon website. The roster records themselves are organized alphabetically and occupy 24 webpages in WWII Dead > Roster Records.
Around 100 Pottawattamie area individuals served during WWII, were separated from service, and then died in the immediate postwar period no later than 1950. These veterans are found in WWII Dead > Ancillary Records, rather than WWII Dead > Roster Records.
I was fortunate - few areas in the United States have the on-line resources sufficient to build a roster like this.
- Resources for the Pottawattamie area were developed over the years by hundreds of individuals, most of whom are both unknown and deceased. I am grateful to all of them for making this project possible.
- The WWII US > Web Sources submodule contains links to many sources that used in building the roster and the associated Japan and Germany modules.
- The WWII Dead > Roster Sources webpage lists my most commonly-used sources.
Who is included among the Pottawattamie Area World War II Dead
I've cast my net widely and included among the Pottawattamie area WWII dead:
- Almost all names found in official and unofficial lists of WWII dead for Audubon, Cass, Pottawattamie, Harrison, Mills, Montgomery, and Shelby Counties. This was my main source of roster names. (The WWII War Department sometimes seemed to credit one's military service to a county with no known connection. Thus about a dozen names included in my roster perhaps never had a Pottawattamie area connection. WWII Dead > Roster Outliers > War Dept. Errors will list these names.)
- Almost all names connected to the above seven counties gleaned from ancestry.com's database Iowa WWII Bonus Case Files for Beneficiaries. This was my main source of ancillary names.
- All WWII deaths that I found in my main private Reunion for Mac database, St. Paul's. (For the over 200 roster and ancillary members that do not appear in St. Paul's, see WWII Dead > Roster Addenda > Members Not in St. Paul's.)
- Others who had a spouse, parent, or other next of kin who lived in the Pottawattamie area.
- Civilians, including merchant mariners, who died
- Those who were in service when hostilities ended in 1945 and died while still in service before the WWII period officially ended on 31 December 1946.
Who is not included among the Pottawattamie Area World War II Dead
The Navy Department 1946 state reports for WWII US Navy, Marine, and Coast Guard losses omits those who died within the United States, as well as those who died while deployed but from causes other than military operations.
- WWII Dead > Roster Outliers > Navy Dept. Omissions shows 18 names not in the official 1946 Navy Department report that I have so far added to the roster. There are probably others whom I will never locate.
- WWII Dead > Roster Outliers webpages list names from different sources that I have not included in WWII Dead.
- WWII Dead > Roster Additions lists records being prepared but not yet incorporated within WWII Dead.
About Big Pigeon's WWII Japan and Germany Modules
As a retired teacher, I developed these two modules with two major goals:
I broke World War II up into two natural areas:
- Supporting my Pottawattamie Area WWII Dead module.
- Developing a brief overview of World War II that is easy to grasp for systemic learners like me.
I broke World War II up into two natural areas:
- The War with Japan
- The War with Germany
To keep in mind when viewing the Pottawattamie area lists of WWII dead
- Beware - These lists conain voluminous amounts of data and are bound to contain errors. Please feel free to report errors or suggest changes via the Contact Form at the end of the Home > Usage Hints webpage.
- Regarding privacy - I try to use only publicly available information. I believe that all individuals named, including spouses, are now deceased. However, in a few cases my information might be embarrassing to surviving family members. If this is the case, please contact me and we will work out an alternative.
Data in the Pottawattamie area WWII Dead module has universal access via my website. My underlying data is on my personal computer and thus is private:
- I store my data using Release 13 of the Reunion for Mac genealogical data management software.
- Most data is in a large database named St. Paul’s, which contains information for over 49,000 individuals with family connections, albeit often tenuous, to rural Pottawattamie County. St. Paul's focuses on the Boomer/Hazel Township area, in which St. Paul’s Lutheran Church is located. My St. Paul's database is in my Mac folder Bob Docs | _Reunion Databases.
- As explained earlier, each of the over 200 roster and ancillary members not in my St. Paul's database has a small family database in my Mac folder Bob Docs | _Reunion Databases | R13 - Not In St.Paul's - Keep.
Sources for Big Pigeon's WWII Dead > About the Roster webpage:
- "History would never be forgotten if it were taught through stories" page header quote, c/o https://tfipost.com/2022/07/gone-but-not-forgotten-quotes/.
Epigraph from Veterans Plaza Memorial, Bayliss Park, Council Bluffs, Iowa
In memory of those in my WWII Dead roster to whom we owe so much, I have included the following eloquent and moving epigraph, The Glory of their Spirit by the late Richard W. Peterson of Council Bluffs.
When destiny demanded and country called,
they in answer left our rolling hills
and great river valley, and learned the arts of war. Then, on and beneath restless waves of the deep,
in endless skies and across vast oceans to island shores, on broad plains and barren hillsides, in dark forests,
on snow-covered mountains and in the rubble of smashed villages
and cities they faced and fought, with valor and dedication,
those who challenged our ideals and freedom and,
in the very vortex of combat, were then greeted and embraced by Death. The soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen were not born
to die in the youth of their lives – yet they did.
They were not born to die death of violence – yet they did.
By cruel and brutal circumstances of war, they gave their lives
that we might live our lives and years in liberty and peace.
Never should we forget their ultimate sacrifice.
We now in their memory carve their names in stone,
and enshrine them in our hearts;
we now cast in eternal bronze, figures who in sorrow and
in the long, long thoughts of youth
reflect on the last measure of devotion given by those we now honor, and we join their mute and motionless yet eloquent presence
in their silent meditation,
Thinking not only of the passing of the departed patriots,
But remembering the glory of their spirit.
© Richard W. Peterson, reprinted with permission of Kip (Peterson) Sherbondy.
In memory of those in my WWII Dead roster to whom we owe so much, I have included the following eloquent and moving epigraph, The Glory of their Spirit by the late Richard W. Peterson of Council Bluffs.
When destiny demanded and country called,
they in answer left our rolling hills
and great river valley, and learned the arts of war. Then, on and beneath restless waves of the deep,
in endless skies and across vast oceans to island shores, on broad plains and barren hillsides, in dark forests,
on snow-covered mountains and in the rubble of smashed villages
and cities they faced and fought, with valor and dedication,
those who challenged our ideals and freedom and,
in the very vortex of combat, were then greeted and embraced by Death. The soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen were not born
to die in the youth of their lives – yet they did.
They were not born to die death of violence – yet they did.
By cruel and brutal circumstances of war, they gave their lives
that we might live our lives and years in liberty and peace.
Never should we forget their ultimate sacrifice.
We now in their memory carve their names in stone,
and enshrine them in our hearts;
we now cast in eternal bronze, figures who in sorrow and
in the long, long thoughts of youth
reflect on the last measure of devotion given by those we now honor, and we join their mute and motionless yet eloquent presence
in their silent meditation,
Thinking not only of the passing of the departed patriots,
But remembering the glory of their spirit.
© Richard W. Peterson, reprinted with permission of Kip (Peterson) Sherbondy.