Military history help

[wirejock]

Bear with me. This is pretty hard to write.
My father-in-law passed some time ago. He served in WWII as a waist gunner on a B17 and flew a full tour out of the Philippines.
A bit of back ground. My dad passed when I was 24 and never got to see me reach success or achieve my dream of flight and PPSEL.
I am currently building a Vans RV7a. He would have loved helping me.
So on to my issue.
Pops (father-in-law) was much like many other war veterans. He never discussed his military memories with family.
He was very much my surrogate father. One of his proudest moments was when I got my ticket.
He didn't seem to mind discussing his WWII memories with me and I would pass them on to his family in a very discrete manner.
I would never prod him and only when he offered, would listen intently.
Unfortunately, I never pressed him to tell me what airplane, group or squadron he served in.
I would love to know anything and archive information or even photos for family.

So the question for this group of intelligent folk is how can I find out and is it possible to find photos?

Thanks in advance

[Kyle Boatright]

Bear with me. This is pretty hard to write.
My father-in-law passed some time ago. He served in WWII as a waist gunner on a B17 and flew a full tour out of the Philippines.
A bit of back ground. My dad passed when I was 24 and never got to see me reach success or achieve my dream of flight and PPSEL.
I am currently building a Vans RV7a. He would have loved helping me.
So on to my issue.
Pops (father-in-law) was much like many other war veterans. He never discussed his military memories with family.
He was very much my surrogate father. One of his proudest moments was when I got my ticket.
He didn't seem to mind discussing his WWII memories with me and I would pass them on to his family in a very discrete manner.
I would never prod him and only when he offered, would listen intently.
Unfortunately, I never pressed him to tell me what airplane, group or squadron he served in.
I would love to know anything and archive information or even photos for family.

So the question for this group of intelligent folk is how can I find out and is it possible to find photos?

Thanks in advance

If you have the unit number and particularly the aircraft number, there are some photo collectors who can probably help you. I suggest you join the Warbird Information Exchange (another web board) and post your question there. I'm amazed at the information some of the posters have.

[I_FLY_LOW]

Have you tried here?
http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/

I'm going to hit them up about my dad's records, when I get some time to sit down and do it.
He was there in WWII, at the battle of the Bulge.
I've wanted to know what all went on, but like so many, he kept that all inside.
Now that I'm older, I understand why, but I'd like to know about what he did, what the unit he was with did, etc.
We're losing the greatest generation way too fast, nowadays, and we're losing the history of where we came from, along with it.

[Mike Switzer]

There was a big fire in St Louis (I think in the 70's) and a lot of the records were lost so that link may be missing a lot. I know my Grandpa & his brothers had to jump thru a lot of hoops to get benefits later in life because the records were lost in the fire.

[I_FLY_LOW]

Maybe it was this one, or through another link within archives.gov.
http://www.archives.gov/research/military/
I got it through a friend of mine, who needed some records for his benefits.
I'll double-check with him, and get the correct link.
I got to digging within that site some time ago, and was on the path I was looking for, but didn't have time to complete it.

[Chris Henry]

Hello,
I work with the EAA B-17 program and researching veteran history. If you want to PM me his name, I can look for info on him.

[wirejock]

Hello,
I work with the EAA B-17 program and researching veteran history. If you want to PM me his name, I can look for info on him.

PM sent. THanks so much.
And thank you everyone else for the great tips.