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Thanks Sam,

I have a request though and figure this is as good a place as any to find someone who might know where I can find some information.

Family stories about my great-uncle lead us to understand that he was quite the unusual over the top kind of military guy. I've been unable to find any record of him online at all even though he was a career soldier from the WWII era, special forces kind of guy who used to jump off a ship in scuba gear and swim up a river then change clothes to blend in with the locals, then swim back to a pick up ship when the job was done.

If certain family stories have even a grain of truth to them, I'd like to make sure his name is remembered.

Looking for some way to find real information to verify against family stories.

His name was Clayton Mann and passed away in the early/mid 60s in Southern California. His father's name was Raymond and his mother's name was Althea

Family stories have placed him as having served in the Army, Navy AND Marine Corp although I'm not sure how one guy spends time in 3 different branches of the military.

Family stories also have him stationed in Hawaii just prior to the planned land invasion of Japan and an active participant in that planning.

Family stories also have him infiltrating Germany for assassination style assignments deep behind enemy lines.

I have no ideas what stories are really true, I was a very young boy when he passed away. I do know however that he was given a military style funeral complete with honor guard and that the flag presented to his family had a pile of medals on it.

If anyone has good online sources for researching someone like this with only limited information, please let me know.

Cheers,
Lloyd

Do you have a copy of his death certificate? How about the obituary? As far as the military records, you can contact the Military Records Bureau in St Louis to get those. You will probably need his full name, date of birth and preferably his military id number. Back then it was not the same number as the SS# used today. You can also check in the town where he lived when he was discharged to get his discharge papers from the recorder's office. Each piece of documentation will lead to new documentation. Ultimately the best of it will be what is in his military record. That is open to you under the freedom of information act. :) Hope that helps. BTW...you can attempt to contact any of the above online but will probably not get copies of any of the documentation without paying copy costs, etc. Once you know the dates of service, the branch of service, ships he may have been on, etc, you can look up more information about those units on the internet.