What you can expect to find in an Army Official Military Personnel File (OMPF)

The Army Official Personnel file contains a variety of important information regarding a service member’s military career. This is the complete OMPF of PFC Howard Marion Fouts of Canton, Illinois. Howard was born in 1910 and along with his brother Orie, enlisted in the Army in 1942. Howard was trained as a radio operator and radio mechanic and assigned to combat duty in an M-7 Priest self-propelled Artillery cannon with the 95th Armored Field Artillery Battalion of the 5th Armored Division, where he fought in 5 campaigns in the European Theater of Operations, including the Normandy, Northern France, Ardennes, Rhineland and Central Europe Campaigns. At the end of the war, Howard was reassigned to Service Company, 10th Infantry Regiment, 5th Infantry Division prior to being sent back to the US for discharge. We are extremely lucky that his file was one that survived the 1973 NPRC fire intact, although water-damaged. Some of the records included in a service record include pay allotments, medical and dental treatment forms, lists of personal awards, citations and campaign ribbons and medals, transfer documents, enlistment physical examination and induction paperwork, report of separation discharge document WD AGO 53-55, the precursor to the (DD-214), Military occupational specialty training (MOS) and weapons training and Court Martial proceedings.