A Texas Panhandle soldier with no biography, photo or obituary online. The search found his January 1942 enlistment card (Ochiltree County, born 1916) and Army morning-report pages (one dated November 1943) that list him by serial number with the 757th Tank Battalion, one of them as a Technician Fifth Grade. It did not find where or how he died: the 1946 Army honor list for Texas lists him as killed in action, and the report shows the free records that can tell the rest.
What was typed into the search: Sam Littau · Army · World War II · Ochiltree County, Texas
Summary sources: NARA AAD: WWII Army enlistment records (search by serial 38080027) · NARA: 1946 honor list of Army dead, Texas · Ochiltree County transcription of that list (Genealogy Trails).
Born 1916
Service number 38080027 PROBABLE
Likely match · Written for family readers — military jargon explained as you go.
Every sentence carries a numbered source. Highlighted passages marked like this are informed speculation, not record. Events at his bases are ones verified to the same field and to his own dates there. He is never said to have been involved in them.
Two layers are kept visually separate. From records only states what a fetched page or cited ship report supports. Likely — informed speculation describes what his ship or rating was doing then; every speculative sentence is labeled and can be wrong if a transfer or watch bill we have not seen says otherwise.
Sam Littau enlisted in the U.S. Army on 5 Jan 1942, serial number 38080027, grade private; the card lists Texas as his state of residence and birth year 1916.
Cited: NARA WWII Army Enlistment Records (AAD / NAID 1263923)
18 November 1943: Army morning report / special order, unit Co "A" 757th Tk Bn lists Littau, Sam, serial 38080027.
Cited: NARA WWII Morning Reports — https://catalog.archives.gov/id/456938820
Undated page: Army morning report / special order, unit Serv. Co. 757th Tank Bn. Inf lists Littau, Sam, serial 38080027, SSN 321.
Cited: NARA WWII Morning Reports — https://catalog.archives.gov/id/469116363
Undated page: Army morning report / special order lists Littau, Sam, serial 38080027, SSN 321.
Cited: NARA WWII Morning Reports — https://catalog.archives.gov/id/469115362
Undated page: Army morning report / special order, unit CoC. 757TKBN INF lists Littau, Sam, serial 38080027.
Cited: NARA WWII Morning Reports — https://catalog.archives.gov/id/572480059
Undated page: Army morning report / special order, unit Serv. Co. 757th Tank Bn. Inf lists Littau, Sam, serial 38080027.
Cited: NARA WWII Morning Reports — https://catalog.archives.gov/id/572480059
Undated page: Army morning report / special order, unit Co C 757 TANRRN INF lists Littau, Sam, serial 38080027.
Cited: NARA WWII Morning Reports — https://catalog.archives.gov/id/570157876
Undated page: Army morning report / special order lists Littau, Sam, serial 38080027.
Cited: NARA WWII Morning Reports — https://catalog.archives.gov/id/570157876
Undated page: Army morning report / special order lists Littau, Sam, serial 38080027.
Cited: NARA WWII Morning Reports — https://catalog.archives.gov/id/454570267
Confirmed = an exact identifier matches. Likely = several independent details match. Possible = some details match; needs checking.
Each rank in his records, in plain English, with its pay grade and what it usually meant day to day.
Pay grade: WWII 5th grade (like today's E-4) · Rough Army equivalent: Corporal
What it meant: WWII specialist technician, paid like a corporal.
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No public unit history page found automatically. Unit histories are held by NARA and the service history offices.
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Use form SF-180 or the National Archives' online eVetRecs. Give his full name, service number 38080027, branch and rough dates. Next of kin (spouse, child, parent, sibling) pay nothing. Files of anyone who left service more than 62 years ago are open to everyone.
Start ↗For soldiers who died in World War II or Korea, the Army's burial case file (IDPF) often says where and how he died and where he rests. Ask the U.S. Army Human Resources Command for it under FOIA; it's free.
Start ↗If he died overseas in WWII and wasn't brought home, the American Battle Monuments Commission lists his cemetery, plot and unit.
Start ↗WWII draft cards (FamilySearch, free account) give birth date, address, employer and next of kin.
Start ↗Government headstone applications (NARA, 1925–1963, and later VA files) often give serial, unit and dates.
Start ↗Many veterans recorded their discharge paper at the county clerk after the war. Ask the county where he lived.
Start ↗The Portal to Texas History has scanned small-town Texas papers. Hometown papers often printed enlistments, letters home and casualty news.
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