I am very new to this and if I'm posting it in the wrong place, I beg forgiveness. I looked at all the forums and descriptions and could not find a definite fit. My father, Wilbur A. Dodd, served in the Graves Registration Service in Italy immediately postwar (1946-47 per his resume). His description: "Identification of unknown American dead for Repatriation Program -- mainland Italy, south from Firenze (Florence) and all of Sicily." The Army called him a "Grave Registration Tech 980." Not surprisingly, it was so awful he never talked about it. I have heard, anecdotally, that soldiers in Graves Registration had the highest levels of alcoholism and what we would today call PTSD of any other detail. Black humor: he had a ring which I remember seeing in my childhood -- a hand-carved cameo of a skull. I understood it to be a souvenir or insignia that he and his unit fellows had commissioned. He never wore it, just kept it in a dresser drawer. He told us that the metal had been melted down from an American silver dollar. I don't know what happened to the ring. Probably my mother got rid of it after he died in 1984. Has anyone else seen or heard of something like this? FYI I tried to get more detail of his service from the National Personnel Records Center in St Louis, but his records were among those damaged by fire in 1973 and all I got was a very bad copy of an honorable discharge document with many blackened, unreadable areas. If I am reading his serial number correctly it was 31522411 and he was inducted on 20 Sept 1946 in West Hartford, CT. At one time I located, and printed, an article called "The Last Detail" by David Colley about those who served in graves registration. That link does not seem to work any more. I would appreciate any information or shared stories. Thank you.
A Grave Task: The Wartime Job Nobody Wanted Quartermaster Graves Registration Service | WW2 US Medical Research Centre
Thanks for these. Here's what the Army had to say about it, last year, with some poignant photos: https://www.cem.va.gov/CEM/publications/NCA_America_WWII_Burial_Program.pdf The part about repatriation runs from page 10-19. Claims that "Remains repatriated from across the world between 1947-1951 made up the vanguard of post-war burials in national cemeteries ..."
This document give you information on Graves Registration Units and organization. The “Mediterranean Section” starts on Page 31, and describes the organization and location of the various units in this organization This is a PDF document, which you can save to your computer https://www.7tharmddiv.org/Final Disp-Chapters_17-21.pdf This is the same document, but the entire book…….you can download this as a PDF also Final Disposition of World War II Dead, 1945-51
Kathy. Given the part of Italy that your father worked in, he would have been involved with the US Rome-Sicily cemetery in Nettuno. It is a quite wonderful place. Whilst it was being built and the remains of the US casualties interred, the men played baseball during their time off. This led to the establishment of the Nettuno Baseball Club by the local Italians and the construction of a baseball stadium - very unusual for Italy. Regards Frank
Frank, belated thanks for this. It is nice to know a location where he likely served. I do know that despite the grimness of his work, it sounded like he became acquainted in a positive way with some Italian people. He definitely picked up some of the language. (Swear words in particular.) Thanks also to Temujin for the document links. I’m probably going to wonder about that cameo ring for the rest of my life. There might be half a dozen people, somewhere in the world, who have some answers. Likely all the soldiers who wore them are no longer living.
I don't know if I can help you, but in the following period indicated by you (1948> 1952) the Military Cemetery of Castelfiorentino (Tuscany, province of Florence) was abandoned, where all the remains of Allied and German soldiers had converged; about 5,000 dead men. During the transfer to the Allied Military Cemetery in Florence and to the German Cemetery of the Futa Pass (near Florence), the personnel of the Corps of Fallen Registration worked with great respect for all the Fallen. I personally met the Italian custodian of the cemetery and a person of German nationality who at the time had been taken prisoner and was used for the identification and registration of the fallen of German nationality. As one of the largest in Italy north of Rome, your father most likely did his homework here as well. A hug. Marco Manicone Translate da: Non so se posso aiutarti, ma nel periodo successivo da te indicato (1948 > 1952) è stato dismesso il Cimitero Miltare di Castelfiorentino (Toscana, provincia di Firenze), dove erano confluiti tutti i resti di militari Alleati e Tedeschi; circa 5.000 uomini deceduti. Durante il trasferimento al Cimitero Militare Alleato di Firenze ed a quello Tedesco del Passo della Futa (vicino Firenze) il personale del Corpo di Registrazione dei Caduti ha lavorato con grande rispetto di tutti i Caduti. Ho conosciuto personalmente il custode italiano del Cimitero ed una persona di nazionalità tedesca che all'epoca era stato fatto prigioniero e veniva utilizzato per l'identificazione e la registrazione dei Caduti di nazionalità tedesca. Essendo uno dei più grandi d'Italia a nord di Roma, molto probabilmente tuo padre ha svolto i suoi compiti anche qui. Un abbraccio. Marco Manicone
