I recently gave a talk (February 2026) to a neighboring Rotary club about how to research veterans' records and what to do with that information. It was a great talk, and the feedback was very refreshing as was the interest, from young and old. It also prompted me to finally put info about this here to help others uncover and share these unknown stories. Narrowing down what a specific person did in the war is close to impossible. However, we can get pretty close when we put a

I don't have the brain to read something once and remember it forever. That's why during school and well after I make cheat sheets for myself. Below are the names of the Army's air forces from 1907 to 1947, when the Air Force became its own branch. Submitted for your ease of reference - and mine! US Army Signal Corps - August 1, 1907 to May 24, 1918. US Army Air Service (USAAS) - May 24, 1918 to July 2, 1926. US Army Air Corps (USAAC) - July 2, 1926 to June 20, 1941. US Army

Among the readily available lists of defined terms about the Holocaust, very few are comprehensive. Most of them only include those that serve the mission of the product or information in which the terms and definitions are mentioned. This dictionary, a combination of six such lists, attempts to go beyond singular sources for all students of the Holocaust, regardless of level of education. It also contains select terms about genocide beyond the Holocaust. The numbers behind e

There is a myth that many victims of the Holocaust were tattooed at several camps. This is not true. Only Auschwitz-Birkenau tattooed its victims. The info sheet below, created and copyrighted in 2014 by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, clarifies who received tattoos, how they received them, when, and why. It is presented here verbatim. Tattoos and Numbers: The System of Identifying Prisoners at Auschwitz   During the Holocaust, concentration camp prisoners receiv

A neighbor and friend of mine talked to me in the fall of 2025 about his grandfather, Bill "Willie" Tobitsch, a sailor in WWII. Bill was from Butler, PA, but moved to the Bronx and entered the Navy there. The family already knew some of what Bill did in the Navy, by Bill's own admission. Further, to this day, the family has Bill's shadow box. So, I was not starting from scratch with Bill and there was no big void in knowledge that I was trying to shine light in. Nonetheless,

A few months back, one of Edward's kids asked me to look into her father. This was shortly after word starting getting out in my neighborhood that I can sometimes find out stuff about what GIs did in the war. The daughter was fairly confident that Edward worked for Patton, although details were sketchy on what unit. She also told me, with a chuckle, that he was 'just an administrative officer.' So, I got some basic information from her and ran with it. We were lucky in that t

Note: this history was supplemented by the availability of Army 'morning reports' on the web and a well researched and assembled history of Glenn's unit by private individuals, also available on the web. Glenn in France in 1944. Fun fact: he gave a French photographer a pack of cigarettes to take this photo. Handsome guy, steely eyes. Glenn was from Wilkinsburg. His house is long gone. Prior to being drafted, he was working as a foreman at Mine Safety Appliances. He was 24 wh

Lawrence was from Turtle Creek.  I drove by his house recently just to see it…I don’t think the neighborhood has changed very much. He was married and worked as a Drill Press Operator for Westinghouse. He was also his neighborhood's Air Raid Warden. Lawrence's official Air Raid Warden identification card. I've only seen this one card of this type. He was drafted into the Army, Infantry, at the age of 30 - quite the old man for such a thing. Lawrence entered France on Utah Bea

I recently gave a public talk (October 2025) at the Carnegie Free Library and Music Hall about two GIs from Pittsburgh that liberated concentration camps.   The families of the two GIs I focused on to tell the story around had only vague knowledge of what their fathers did before I recreated their wartime histories. In the talk, I discussed who those soldiers were before the war, then their induction into the Army and their deployment to France, their experiences in the Infan

In the summer of 1945, the United States still faced a potential protracted fight in the Pacific theater. The military and the government and the American public were weary of the enormous costs of the war, both in lives and money, but without decisive action by the Allies, the war with Japan was potentially far from over. Throughout the spring and summer, Allied forces continued to fight in the Philippines and Okinawa and conduct bombing raids on the Japanese mainland. A lan

That was the high praise I got from a high school kid recently when I gave a talk (November 2025) at the Pittsburgh chapter of the Navy’s Sea Cadets. The talk was about the Navy and World War II. The age of the kids ranged from about 11 to 17. It was a small crowd which I don’t mind at all because that’s always a more intimate discussion and allows for more time during questions and answers afterward.   The Navy is not in my wheelhouse, which is half why I jumped at the chanc

I love gathering and keeping artifacts from the war, especially photographs that may otherwise get thrown away. I have a whole display of photos of GIs or taken by GIs during the war, while not knowing who any of them are. However, when known and if possible, I try to help artifacts and photos find their way to their proper owners.   I came across several papers from my late great-grandfather, Corwin Olds, a few years ago. Frankly, there was not much worth saving but then I c