Unlocking Veteran’s Stories with Morning Reports

Morning Reports are a wonderful asset to what we do. When we find service records that were destroyed in the NPRC fire of 1973 we can piece back a veteran's story with the use of these documents. They are time consuming to search due to being on microfilm, however the rewards can be well worth the time and expense.

Today we uncovered the history of Captain Donald C Alexander. At the beginning of the day we only knew his last name, the last 4 digits of his service number and that he was in an artillery unit of the 45th Division. I was able to use morning reports and trace his service backwards from the end of the war, confirming his name and full service number and that his final unit was the 158th Field Artillery Bn of the 45th Division and working backwards found that he actually served in combat as the Forward Observer of the 500th Armored Field Artillery Bn of the 14th Armored, transferring to the 45th Division for rotation home, and in December, 1944 earned both the Bronze Star for action on December 18th and the Silver Star just a few days later. Newspaper databases found that later in life Mr. Alexander became the head of the IRS in the mid 1970's and was a major political opponent of President Nixon during the Watergate era. Captain Alexander's military uniform may now be able to be used to give historical context while on display and his story can be preserved.

Please contact us if you would like us to help you uncover the history of a veteran and we will be glad to assist!