WW II Dogtag ID needed

[Westfront]

I post this in this forum to show it to the most people possible to help.
A hunting buddy of me got this one with no more information than that it was found in the woods in the area of German/Belgium border.
He tried to check at NARA. This is what he got when searching on NARA :

31324780 MERCIER#RUSSELL#J####### MASSACHUSETTS HAMPDEN HARTFORD
CONNECTICUT 43 Civil Life 16

This one has the wrong ASN number !!

39414447 VERMILLION#JOHN#B####### CALIFORNIA GLENN SACRAMENTO CALIFORNIA
43 Civil Life 25

this one has the right ASN number but the wrong name !!
Anybody here who can help?

Mercier. Russell J
39414447 T45 A
P

 

[Northland Hunter]

I love stories like this one! I truly hope there will be some positive results!
Big credit to you Westfront!!

// Erik

 

[bootyhoundpa]

good news. i was able to talk to a secretary at the russell mercier sr center.. she took down info on how to get onto t-net and will pass this info onto her supervisor.. she also said they have a large american legion in town so hopfully between the mercier family and the legoin we can get this dogtag returned to the proper decendents .. they will probably be pm-ing you westfront ,at least i hope so.. it would be a shame if we were unable to re-unite this dogtag with the family. so fingers crossed hopefully we will hear something soon... and thanks to you westfront for making us aware of these discoveries... dave

 

[crazyjarhead]

good news. i was able to talk to a secretary at the russell mercier sr center.. she took down info on how to get onto t-net and will pass this info onto her supervisor.. she also said they have a large american legion in town so hopfully between the mercier family and the legoin we can get this dogtag returned to the proper decendents .. they will probably be pm-ing you westfront ,at least i hope so.. it would be a shame if we were unable to re-unite this dogtag with the family. so fingers crossed hopefully we will hear something soon... and thanks to you westfront for making us aware of these discoveries... dave

great effort on you behalf as well as the other members who have been searching. Will be waiting and hoping

 

[HEAVYMETALNUT]

Probably not alot of help but every little bit is a piece of the puzzle. "Hampden" is a county in western Mass, not the name of a town. Might try Springfield,, Holyoke, Chicopee, etc. It borders CT.

Hamden is in CT

 

[Westfront]

I agree Jarhead. Without help from You all it will be near impossible to do this kind of research.

 

[CRUSADER]

i will call the phone num,ber in the morning and see what they can tell me..

Thanks a lot for that! It will be a great christmas present for us to find the relatives of this man. Even better that it looks like he survived the war!
We will send this tag back when there is a son or daugther who wants to have it.

And for Norman Baldauff. It is possible that his age matches the find. It was found near a command post of the 99th US Inf. Div. I have some pics from this place. The mess tin wasnt used much. Looks like they had dishes there. We found dishes and broken glass together with a lot of pig bones and other stuff in a foxhole directly beside the CP.

Thanks again for having friends over there which help can us!

Good luck, that is the right thing to do , & something I have tried a couple of times but failed

 

[bootyhoundpa]

more good news.. just got a call back from two of the supervisors at the russell mercier sr center.. they were very interested and happy we passed this info onto them. they were able to read this forum, but could not login without permission .. sr center policy .. they said they will pass this info onto the local historical society and a local gentleman from the vfw.. im fairly confident they will be able to find mr merciers family.. so fingers crossed till we hear more.. dave

 

[BttleDiggerDrew]

more good news.. just got a call back from two of the supervisors at the russell mercier sr center.. they were very interested and happy we passed this info onto them. they were able to read this forum, but could not login without permission .. sr center policy .. they said they will pass this info onto the local historical society and a local gentleman from the vfw.. im fairly confident they will be able to find mr merciers family.. so fingers crossed till we hear more.. dave

Such a noble effort, carry on!

 

[Westfront]

Booty send me a mail he got today. Looks like he found Mr. Mercier!!!
Here is what he got:

Hi Xxxxx,

Thank you so much for alerting us to the recently found WWII dog tag for Russell J. Mercier. We are all very ecited about it here in Hebron, CT. We immediately checked with the Town Clerk, Xxxxx Xxxxxxxxx at the Hebron Town Hall who checked her Veterans Database and we discovered that yes, indeed, it is the same person. Our Senior Center is named after him, and we are about to learn more as the Hebron Historical Society will be getting involved. It will make a great story for the Hebronian, a news magazine for our area. Xxxxx Xxxxxxx is the Chairman of the Historical Society and a reporter for the Hebronian.

We've also informed the a couple of Veterans from the VFW who were ecited to hear the news and want to be
kept abreast of developments.

Any help you can give us getting the dog tag back to Hebron will be much appreciated. Please expect that there will be people from Hebron who will be eager to get in touch with you after the holiday. Thank you for all you've done.
My e-mail address is xxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxx.

Sincerely,

Xxxxxxx Xxxxxxxx
Russell Mercier Senior Center

 

[Ray S ECenFL]

Wow. Outstanding, simply outstanding.

Good job to all.



How about a banner vote......


Ray S ECenFL

 

[bula]

Great job for all those who helped with

 

[hurtgen44]

Great info...looks that the right person is found.
Really want to know more about him... where he has fought in the war ,how he looked...it makes the story complete.
I'm very curious how the story now goes

 

[bergie]

Very noble and worthy work by all. It's a great story. The bigger picture is... why is mankind so uncivilized as to fight wars with each other when future generations of former enemies end up being friends and helping in such a worthy pursuit? I understand WWII was a morally correct war against aggressive evil, but in many cases the reasons for war are dicey at best. Just something for all to consider in the bigger picture. It's probably a problem without a real solution (short of aliens coming here and galvanizing us against a common threat, though that would just be war of another kind).

 

[mobile miner]

All you T`neters are great people. This story proves just how all you people make this site worth while. Congrats

 

[jslayton]

any update on this ? I think its cool that things have fallen into place to get that tag returned

I found this info btw,

Russell Jerome Mercier - Married - Alta Harriet Twombly

HAVE 1 Children
1. Susan Mercier -

Susan Mercier married John D Wacaser in Tolland, CT (btw 1959 - 2001)

Located some information about a Susan (age 67) and John Wacaser in Columbia, CT

Found an address record not sure how current it is


JOHN D WACASER 490 ROUTE 87 COLUMBIA, CT 06237


AND according to google maps Hebron,CT and Columbia,CT are only about an 9 min drive

 

[mickk]

You can have all the doctors and professors in the world working in museums and galleries. They will tell you the atomic number of the paint used, the DNA of the artist, but they cant do what you blokes do and never will do.

The respect shown here to ex servicemen always makes me feel so humble that unless you feel it, I cant explain it to you.

Forget the First 48, give treasurenet the info and it will become the First 24!

 

[minton7]

neat story ! I love these type of things.. great goin!

 

[Westfront]

I have contacted the Mercier Senior Center, but did not get any response. I asked if they have any information about Mr. Mercier. Where he was in service in europe, any relatives and so on to make sure we have the right man. There is still the mystery with the non matching number...
Maybe they have to get these info for themself first.

jslayton....maybe You have another route to go. Any chance to get a phone number? And, of course, somebody who can make a call. I dont think Hurtgen44 or myself can explain this in the way any of You guys can do this...

 

[staydetuned]

Very noble and worthy work by all. It's a great story. The bigger picture is... why is mankind so uncivilized as to fight wars with each other when future generations of former enemies end up being friends and helping in such a worthy pursuit? I understand WWII was a morally correct war against aggressive evil, but in many cases the reasons for war are dicey at best. Just something for all to consider in the bigger picture. It's probably a problem without a real solution (short of aliens coming here and galvanizing us against a common threat, though that would just be war of another kind).

My thoughts precisley!

Awesome work guys!