Hello and looking for help finding Harry Gordon PFC PH pair

[SusanGo]

My name is Susan Gorman, and I am the great-niece of PFC Harry Gordon (Patton's 3rd army, 5th Infantry Division, 2nd Infantry Regiment, Company B). I have been searching for his purple heart medals for well over a decade. 

 

.My mother, Harry's niece, is turning 80 in May, and my son Harry, who is named for him, just turned 18. It would mean the world to us if the medals were restored to our family. 

 

When Harry was killed in action, it devastated my great-grandmother to the point where she couldn't really talk about it, ever. My grandmother was also deeply affected by his death, as he was her favorite sibling and they were very close. We believed the medals were lost or stolen, but they appeared on this forum between 2012-2014. In April of 2014, my friend Beth who is a genealogist, posted on this thread on my behalf but did not get a response. I didn't know she had done it until afterward, and could not pursue it anyway because my husband had been diagnosed with gastric cancer that March. We had two young children and I had to attend to my family in crisis. He unfortunately passed away in 2015 so I have been a solo single parent since then and have only recently had the energy to refocus on the search.

 

If anybody here on this site has information or advice I would deeply appreciate it. I am also doing research on my great-uncle's service, so if anyone has any information about his unit's hostile engagements in late December 1944, that would be very helpful to me! 

 

Thank you very much in advance.

 

[Robert Grant, CAPT USCG]

In regard to your great-uncle's Purple Heart Medal, his Service Record should contain a copy of the citation, if you or a family member does not have paperwork evidencing the Medal being awarded.  As his great-niece (blood relative), you should be allowed to order a copy of his Service Record by submitting the Standard Form 180 (SF-180).  The form is available online.

 

Purple Heart Day is observed on August 7 each year as a time for Americans to remember and honor those wounded on the battlefield or paid the ultimate sacrifice.  In recent years there has been an effort to ensure each recipient has their Purple Heart Medal.  Military Order of the Purple Heart was formed in 1932 and charted by congress for the protection and mutual interest of all who have received the decoration. Composed exclusively of Purple Heart recipients, it is the only veteran’s service organization comprised strictly of “combat” veterans.   Hopefully, there is a Chapter of the Military Order of the Purple Heart near you, which can help with obtaining a replacement Purple Heart Medal, if the actual Medal awarded can not be located.

 

Very respectfully,

Robert 

Robert Grant, CAPT USCG (Ret.)

[stratasfan]

You can also order his IDPF (IDPFs were not lost in the Great Fire of 1970-something, so his should be there!) and those have good information in them. It is listed at the bottom here:

 

https://www.archives.gov/st-louis/frequently-requested

 

Definitely worth ordering it, just be alerted that the wait can be a long time. But so worth it! 

 

Have you got the rest of his insignia, patches, etc.? Or is it all missing?

[5th ID-Battle of Angers]

Dear Susan,

 

I would be happy to help you learn more about Harry Gordon's unit. Do you know the exact date he was killed ?
I will also keep an eye out for the medal.

 

Wishing you good luck in your search.

Romain

[SusanGo]

Thank you everyone for you kind and helpful replies!

 

@5th ID-Battle of AngersHarry Gordon was killed on 12/26/44 in Luxembourg. We have been trying to trace his steps through France and Belgium using online information but it gets confusing around Bastogne. His Company is rarely mentioned at least in the sources I've found so far. 

 

@stratasfan, from my mother's limited research, his records were in that fire, so this is very helpful. I don't have any other insignia, etc. and it was suggested on another thread that this might be something to look into getting reissued as well. It would be wonderful to have a Red Devils patch, etc etc. 

 

@Robert Grant, CAPT USCG extremely helpful suggestions, I will get to work and keep you all updated. 

 

Again, I can't thank you enough. 

[stratasfan]

The IDPFs weren't in the fire, so always good place! I speak from experience. I have IDPFs for KIA servicemen who were buried and whose remains were not recovered. The info is different depending on that, but all interesting! Actually, the ones I have for vets who were buried even have imprints of their dogtags, which is cool, since you could actually get a repro made. :) 

 

I'd send in a request as soon as you can, and then the wait time will start and you'll be that far ahead. :) 

 

I'm not sure that you'd get patches reissued. You can request replacement medals and badges. I've done this for USCG and helped friends with Army. However, I've never seen patches as part of it. The most was a friend who's Dad was in the Army and in the Battle of the Bulge, and she got the medals and his badges (like the Combat Infantry Badge), but no rank or patches or generic insignia like that. She bought period ones for her display. 

 

I'd think you'd be able to find collar brass, rank, patches, etc. fairly inexpensively. Not sure about the unit patch as some of those can be harder to find, but still . . . shouldn't be too hard!

[SusanGo]

@stratasfan  here is a pic of his gravestone, no dog tag imprint. We don't have anything, I think that's partly why I'm so interested in restoring his story to my family in as much detail as possible. 

 

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/89239992/harry-gordon

 

Thank you so much! I'll send the request asap. 

[stratasfan]

Nice picture! See . . . those collar devices he's wearing should be very easy to get . . . one "US" and one crossed rifles (infantry).  The dog tag imprint might be in the IDPF, not the tombstone, BTW. :) 

 

Don't know if you've seen these, but I'll post them in case you haven't! 

 

An article in "The Stars and Stripes", which you can view here and this little article is on page 4:

http://argonnaute.u-paris10.fr/medias/customer_3/periodique/the_stars_and_stripes_pdf/BDIC_GFP_0105_A_1944_1_131.pdf

 

 

 

Also, his burial notice in the Chicago paper:

 

 

 

Also, here is his WWII enlistment record:

 

 

His WWII Draft registration (you can see his signature on this):

 

 

 

 

His Jewish Servicemens card:

 

 

 

 

 

 

His WWII Hospital Card:

 

 

[SusanGo]

@stratasfanI am sitting here trying to compose myself enough to make sense....I am so unbelievably grateful. Thank you for all your help, this is also incredibly motivating! 

[stratasfan]

Just now, SusanGo said:

@stratasfanI am sitting here trying to compose myself enough to make sense....I am so unbelievably grateful. Thank you for all your help, this is also incredibly motivating! 

 

So happy to help! Chicago area is often tough, since the bigger the city, the less you can find, typically. However, I love when you get the Jewish vets, as those Jewish cards are so cool! I remember how I started looking for info on my GGGUncle and GGUncle. :) My GGGUncle was KIa in 1943 over the Aleutians, and he is how I learned about IDPFs, and insignia and badges, etc. :)

 

Just was taking a look at his unit, and this appears to be the DUI for the 2nd Inf. Reg.:

 

 

And the patch for the 5th Infantry Div. is this:

 

Also, here is a cool page with lots of info about the 5th Inf. Div.:

https://history.army.mil/documents/eto-ob/5id-eto.htm

 

These are the collar devices he's wearing in the picture of him:

 

And his PFC rank patches would be like these . . . single chevron:

 

 

Also, if you look at the typical peaked cap, his piping on the rim would have been light blue:

[SusanGo]

Time to get to work!!

[SusanGo]

@stratasfanI've dug into the request, but hit a roadblock at his social security number, so now I'm working on that. It's not specifically required, but I want to increase my chances of finding the most records possible. 

[5th ID-Battle of Angers]

The 2nd Infantry Regiment was sent to Luxembourg on December 24, 1944 to relieve the 12th Infantry Regiment (4th Infantry Division).

The 2nd Infantry Regiment was then stationed in the Consdorf sector. The 2nd and 3rd battalions faced strong resistance in the area, while the 1st remained in reserve until December 27, when it was ordered to take hill 370, north of Berdorf.

[5th ID-Battle of Angers]

I just find a photo of a Harry Gordon, who was part of the L Company, 2nd Infantry Regiment in 1941. He is most likely your great uncle ?

[SusanGo]

 I am really having a hard time finding the words to say thank you to all of you. We didn't realize that he might have switched companies, but this makes total sense since it was common practice (and also because his service record was destroyed in the fire).

 

You are heroes. My mom isn't feeling right well right now and this going to cheer her up immensely. 

[stratasfan]

Super cool for another picture! Here is a pic of the DUI pin that he is wearing on his cap and lower lapels in that new pic. 

 

 

 

As for the SSN . . . I've looked through the records but can't find one. Got to think . .  .they didn't necessarily all have an SSN at that time. Unless you needed it, you didn't have to have one. Most WWII KIA vets I look up I can't find an SSN for. So, I'd forget it. Make sure and put his Service number in there. It is on the Jewish Welfare card and the Hospital form, etc. Put that there. It will do the same thing! 

 

 

[SusanGo]

I'd had similar thoughts, too. I just didn't want to jeopardize my chances.

 

When you submit a request, do they send everything they have or do you need to submit a different request for each thing, medals, IDPF, etc?

[SusanGo]

Medals and records request is in! I got stuck when the site wouldn't let me submit, it wouldn't accept my signature. That led to a phone call to the Veteran's Service Record archive, and a very helpful person at the other end of the line who suggested I use a non-Mac computer instead (the security protocols aren't as good, evidently, and they don't accept submissions from Macs). Boyfriend's laptop did the trick. 

 

He had some very interesting things to say about the 1973 fire. Evidently they kept the burned records, and have the technology to read the ink even if the paper is charred. All of the burned records were saved, so that is a miracle. Also he pointed out that only half of the records were lost, so there's a 50% chance my uncle's service records are still intact. Requesting them also helps the team restoring them and making the digital files, since they are able to identify it as burned or not. 

 

He also said the COVID backlog is wrapping up and I should hear back soon. Fingers crossed. 

 

Thank you all so much for your help I am looking forward to posting more discoveries about Harry Gordon. 

[SusanGo]

Hi Friends, just a quick update. I received a response from the NPRC, requesting I fill out form 13055, called and spoke to another very helpful person who explained basically it's to help them identify his record, which has not been identified as destroyed (or not). It's to tick all the boxes. I'm including all of the information back that you have so kindly shared with me. Fingers crossed, we're getting closer! Hope everyone is enjoying their summer, Susan 

[SusanGo]

Hi Friends, another update. I appear to have hit a roadblock. NPRC sent me a letter in November saying my uncle's records had been destroyed. They then forwarded my request for medals to be reissued to the Army. The Army sent me a letter saying they couldn't determine next of kin so please do that. I tried to get ahold of a live person and she gave me two emails to try, one of them notably responding with please try NPRC. I'm just beyond frustrated at this point. 

 

It's worth mentioning my mom unfortunately passed away on January 5th, and I was so hoping to be able to give the medals to her. 

 

Even more frustrating that the person who stated they last owned them on this site has no record of who he sold them to, evidently. 

 

I'm going to pursue every lead, not down for the count by a long shot, just feeling stuck. 

[manayunkman]

My heart and prayers go out to you at this time.

 

An option you can get a PH for $35 and have his name engraved on it?

 

Like you I would prefer the originals of course but until then you could purchase every medal he was issued and display them.

[SusanGo]

Thank you so much. I agree this is a good option, and I may be getting closer to making that decision. I'm still so upset that the medals were lost or stolen in the first place. A couple of the previous owners have appeared on this forum, but no one's saying anything.