US Cemetery, Sicily, 1944
US Cemetery, Sicily, 1944
​Sources - Personnel     Sources - War with Japan     Sources - War with Germany
bigpigeon.us webpage WWII US > Sources > WWII Personnel, © 2025 by Robert A. Christiansen​, links checked by RAC 31 Mar 2021, updated 20 Feb 2025
Below are links to personnel-related web sources used in Big Pigeon's WWII Dead & WWII US modules.​
About the web sources cited below:
  • I use a combination of free and pay websites, although most are free.
  • After WWII ended, the United States classified all missing as dead. Thus, lists of the WWII dead include those whose remains were never found or identified.
  • Until 1947, the War and Navy Departments kept separate records and issued separate reports. The Air Force was part of the Army and the Navy Department administrated the Marine Corps. 
  • Key sources were the 1946 reports of WWII dead issued by the War and Navy departments.
  • In 1947, the War and Navy Departments were combined into the Defense Department.

WWII Web Sources - Personnel webpage organization:
  1. World War II draft records.
  2. World War II induction records.
  3. World War II personnel lists not casualty-related.
  4.  World War II wounded.
  5. World War II prisoners of war - POWs.
  6. World War II unaccounted for - 
  7. World War II dead - KIA, DOW, DNB.
  8. World War II burials and cemeteries.
A numbered arrow begins each section.

Some cautions about the databases cited below:
  • ​Some databases are incomplete.
  • Some databases include periods other than WWII.
  • Some databases include records for other than WWII decedents.
  • Some databases contain multiple entries for one person.
  • Army-specific databases include US Army Air Force.

==> 1 - World War II Draft Records: Commentary - World War II Draft Records:
​WWII Draft registration dates (courtesy of familysearch.org):
  • First Registration October 16, 1940: males ages 21 to 35 "within the continental United States"
  • Second Registration July 1, 1941: males "who had reached 21 since the first registration"
  • Third Registration February 16, 1942: between the ages of 20 and 45 "who had not previously registered"
  • Fourth Registration April 27, 1942: between the ages of 45 and 65 "not eligible for military service" This registration is not included in this collection.
  • Fifth Registration June 30, 1942: between the ages of 18 and 20
  • Sixth Registration December 10-31, 1942: "those who reached the age of 18 after November 12, 1942"
  • Additional Registration between November 16 and December 31, 1943: "citizens living abroad between the ages of 18 and 45"
Other dates:
16 September 1940: The Selective Service and Training Act was signed into law by President Roosevelt.
29 October 1940: The first draftees were chosen by lottery, 6,175 men with the number 158. 

==> 2 - World War II Induction Records Commentary - World War II Induction Records: 
  • Nine million plus US Army/AAF WWII era (1938-1946) induction records (both draft and enlistment) in first two entries. The second entry is free courtesy of the National Archives.
  • The Jan/Feb 1941 Iowa National Guard induction roster was published 1944 by Iowa State Adjutant General. Slow loading.
  • The armyranger.com entry is taken from the original 19 Jun 1942 roster of the 1st Ranger Bn. (Darby's Rangers), the precursor of today's Army Special Forces. It includes a number of Pottawattamie area men. Entries are listed by rank.

==> 3 - World War II personnel lists not casualty-related (some are not specific to WWII) Commentary - World War II personnel lists not casualty-related:
  • The Navy muster rolls were for crews on Navy ships.

==> 4 - World War II Wounded Records Commentary - World War II Wounded Records:
  • The record counts on the casualty indices are inconsistent.
​
==> 5 - World War II Prisoner of War Records Commentary - World War II Prisoner of War Records: 
  • Several entries are from the National Archives Access to Archival Databases (AAD) series.
  • Most of those listed in the last three entries were captured during the Fall of the Philippines, in early 1942.
  • The sixth entry, the work of the late Roger Mansell, includes Philippine Scouts, coded as PS, who were Filipino members of the US Army. It includes most POW deaths in the Philippines.
  • The seventh entry, the work of Robert Logan Hudson, lists those who passed through Bilibid Prison (evidently most were captured at Corregidor). Most were transported from the Philippines on Hell Ships or were found alive in Japanese POW camps in the Philippines in early 1945. Most POW deaths in the Philippines are not listed. 12,710 Army (including a few British) and 310 civilians are listed.
  • I doubt if members of the Filipino Commonwealth Army, who were mostly reservists, are included in any of these lists. However, I believe Philippine Scouts are included in appropriate lists.

==> 6 - World War II Unaccounted For Records 

Defense POW/MIA Accounting  Agency (DPAA) links: The following seven links access lists of WWII unaccounted for by branch of service. Current counts are in parens.  Commentary - World War II Unaccounted For Records:
  • In WWII, missing status was changed to dead, usually after one year. The unaccounted for status includes those whose bodies were not recovered, or were recovered but not identified.
  • The US Army list includes Philippine Scouts, Filipino members of special US Army units.
  • The Merchant Marine list is incomplete.

Other Unaccounted For links: Commentary - Other Unaccounted For links: 
  • The Missing Air Crew Reports include all crew members, whether they survived or not.

==> 7 - World War II Dead Records
​
1946 official War Department WWII casualty lists for Iowa (Army & Army Air Force):  1946 official Navy Department WWII casualty lists for Iowa (Navy, Marine Corps, & Coast Guard): Commentary - official War & Navy Department casualty lists:
  • Near the top of these lists are links for other states.
  • The Navy Department lists exclude Individuals who died from non-combat causes.
  • All lists exclude individuals who died from service-related causes after release from service.
  • The Navy Department lists include next of kin name and address but don't include service numbers.
  • I have excerpted from these official lists two reports, namely Pottawattamie Area Army WWII Dead and Pottawattamie Area Navy & Marine Corps WWII Dead. You can access these reports from WWII Dead > Roster Outliers. 

Other Nationwide WWII Dead Lists:
Service-wide list of the US WWII dead: Commentary - Service-wide list of the US WWII dead:
Index to Iowa partial lists of WWII veterans by county (includes most dead, with brief biographic information): Some lists of deceased Iowans returned for burial in 1948: Iowa WWII Bonus Case Files: (require ancestry.com membership). Commentary - Iowa Bonus Case Files:
  • After WWII ended, the Iowa legislature awarded a bonus of up to $500 to Iowans who served in WWII, or to their beneficiary if deceased. Subject to certain rules, most WWII veterans deceased before 1950 were entitled to a payment. For unmarried decedents, the primary beneficiary was the mother. This was hard for some fathers to grasp; thus many ineligible fathers applied for the payment. This partially explains why the official WWII Iowa dead count is 8,398 but the Bonus Case Files for Beneficiaries include 19,760 records.
Iowa Veterans Remembrance Project: Commentary - Iowa Veterans Remembrance Project:
  • ​This is a recent effort to list Iowa deaths from all wars; currently 8232 WWII names.

​WWII Deaths for selected units or actions:
For the US Army: For the US Army Air Force: For the US Navy: For the US Merchant Marine:
County-Specific WWII Dead Lists:
For Pottawattamie County, Iowa:
==> 8 - World War II Burials and Cemeteries Records

Government-Supported Cemeteries  

1 - American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC): Commentary - American Battle Monuments Commission:
  • The ABMC manages 26 overseas cemeteries for WWI and WWII dead.​
  • The ABMC also manages memorials within WWII ABMC cemeteries and in several other locations. These memorials list the WWII missing (i.e., unaccounted for).

2 - National Cemetery Administration (NCA): Commentary - National Cemetery Administration:
  • The NCA, which manages the 155 national cemeteries,  is part of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
  • The National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific is the largest NCA cemetery.
​
3 - Arlington National Cemetery: Commentary - Arlington National Cemetery:
  • Arlington National Cemetery is managed by the US Army.
  • I was unable to get the search feature to work on 22 Mar 2021.

National Archives & Records Administration (NARA) holdings via ancestry.com (some are from other wars):
Additional United States Military Cemetery and Memorial Information:​​   
​Findagrave entries for US WWII dead who served in Army and Marine Corps divisions:
Iowa-Specific World War II Burials and Cemeteries Data
==> 9 - World War II Veterans
​
Background: I was interested in the implications of military service on the longevity of WWII veterans. By using ancestry.com's database Iowa WWII Bonus Case Files for Beneficiaries, I was able to build reasonably-complete lists of Pottawattamie-area veterans who died no later than 1950, with the cause of death in most instances. See WWII Dead > Ancillary Records.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2743276/ - The long-time longevity of WWII veterans was explored in the scholarly article The Life-Long Mortality Risks Of World War II Experiences. The authors found three factors which substantially shortened longevity:
  • Overseas service.
  • Service in the War with Japan.
  • Exposure to combat.
Sources for Big Pigeon's WWII US > Web Sources > Sources - Personnel webpage:
  • The webpage header photo, US Cemetery, Sicily, 1944 shows one of the temporary cemeteries used to hold our overseas war dead in WWII. These cemeteries held the dead reinterred from battlefield burial sites. After WWII ended, next of kin chose to either repatriate the dead or have the dead interred in a permanent overseas cemetery.