WHITE PAGES AND PEOPLE SEARCH:

There are a number of search engines on your computer that will allow you to located people at no additional cost to you. Before you start, it is best to get all your information together. You have his name, do you know what state he was from? Some programs want the state of residence, if you don't know for sure, try to remember if your buddy had an accent that might help you narrow your search. If he has a common last name such as Smith or Jones, good luck. Try AltaVista (www.altavista.com) and use "People Finder", Yahoo (www.yahoo.com) has "People Search" and Lycos (www.lycos.com) "People" in the find field. Each of these have people search functions and will lead you to other search engines.

PERSONAL CONTACT:

If you were lucky and made contact through the method above, congratulations. One of the first questions to ask after the backslapping and tears is, "do you remember any other names, or have you had contact with any of the other guys?" This is the easiest way to quickly double or triple the names on your list. The best place to accomplish this is at a reunion of the Association. You can also go through our collection of orders and rosters.

ORDERS & ROSTERS:

Did you keep a copy of your old orders in a shoe box at home? Do you have an old diary, roster or a journal of the unit's moves or fire bases? When you received a promotion, an award, a transfer, or orders for R&R, they usually contained the names of others serving with you. The things to look for here are unit, name, and service number. The Army switched to using the Social Security Number (SSAN) as your service number after 1967. The first three digits of the SSAN identify the state or geographic region of the individual. This information may be of great help in your "people search."

OLD LETTERS AND PHOTOGRAPHS:

The letters you sent home from Vietnam can be a big help. You may have mentioned your buddies and their home towns. Photographs, especially Polaroids, are handy because you wrote peoples names and locations on the back before you sent them home. Dig out that old shoe box and go through the letters and pictures you have been saving. Don't forget to ask your relatives if they saved any of your letters home.

MORNING REPORTS AND MILITARY FILES:

You may have cursed your First Sergeant on many occasions, but his dedication to duty may yield a payoff to you today. The First Sergeant kept a daily roster (DA form 1) on the status of each person assigned to his unit. These records were put on microfilm, and can be obtained for each battery, for every day. This information is often requested to support a VA claim They can be obtained by writing to:

National Records Center
9700 Page Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63132

As you can imagine, it will take quite a while to get this information back. Good luck in your search. If you need any further assistance, there are members of the Association that can help and give you advice.

Visit these other Association pages