The wife and I recently received a box of dog tags, patches, ribbons with arrows on them (some missing it looks like), red & green cord, jump wings, etc. These items belonged to my wife's late Grandfather Gilbert C. Tafoya #39017253. She and her family members know very little about his time served during WWII, as he never spoke of those times. From the few items I have, several things to tell me he was part of the 82nd Airborne, 307th Airborne Medical company, 3rd Army, 3rd infantry, and 5th Armor division...apart from these things, I can only verify when he enlisted, and that he was definitely part of the 307th Airborne Medical Company. Is there any way to find records on exactly where he specifically was and when throughout the war? I know these guys were moved around quite a bit and split up to go in various directions as needed. It sure would be nice if someone could point me in the right direction so I can trace his footsteps. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all
Hello Dave, first of all: welcome to the forum and thank you for posting the photos. What you are looking for are his service records. These can be requested online. A lot of records were destroyed in a fire some time after the war so always make sure to request a reconstruction if that's the case. I've never ordered such records myself, but I'm sure other members can provide more information about the process. To get you started: https://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records I assume some of the patches you have were souvenirs. Which may include some of the US patches. The shield is German. It is a patch used by the German Labor Service (Reichs Arbeits Dienst). The lanyard appears to be the Orange Lanyard of the Royal Netherlands Army. This indicates your wife's grandfather was with the 82AB during its time there. Our members undoubtedly have good information on the 307th and I would recommend focussing on that unit until you are certain he did not join other units later. Like I said the patches might be souvenirs. Good luck with your search for information. Niels
Hi Dave, Welcome to the Forum and hopefully we can be of some assistance to you in your quest to learn more of Gibert's time in Normandy. Ben Major has a page on the 307th Airborne Medical Company here and I see Gilbert is listed on the Roster therein. As a member of the 307th, it is probable that he departed Greenham-Common Airfield onboard a Horsa glider as part of Mission Elmira on the evening of the 6th June. However, one Horsa carrying members of the Company also departed from Membury on the same glider mission. There is a hand drawn map on the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center site here, which shows locations and interesting side notes pertaining to the Company. Also, have a look at the 'LZ W Horsa (Knotts Photo)' thread. The subject glider therein is confirmed as having carried members of the Company to Normandy and we know its landing location. The Kenny L. Knotts photo albums (links in the thread) show several members of the Company. Regards, Pat
Hi Dave, Welcome to the forum! I was sharing some of the same links as Pat was, but he beat me to it so in order to not be redundant I'll edit mine out As Niels says, you should do what you can to obtain any records you can through his link above. That might establish Gilbert C. Tafoya's time with any particular group, and give you a good timeline to work with. There is some really go information out there, and you could start with our forum. If you use the search tool at the top of our task bar, I want you to search the name Knotts ... We have talked pretty often about a Kenny Knotts who also served with the 307th Airborne Medical Company, and one of the things that Kenny Knotts did was take many photos of his time with the 307th. We have also been able to establish some locations from the Knotts photos. This is also a link to the Kenny Knotts photographic collection brown album: http://cdm16635.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16635coll4/id/247 There is also a green album in the same website here: http://cdm16635.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16635coll4/id/232/rec/1 I would say to study the photos carefully because you might even find Gilbert Tafoya in a photograph! We are excited to help you with any questions you may have regarding the photos or map links, and I am sure we can identify some locations to further aid you. John
Thanks all for the reply. I'll try to obtain Gilbert's service records and look into these links. I'll let you know what I find to keep you in the loop. Thanks again, talk to you soon.