Do families get letters from the military about the death of a soldier?

Answer 1

In the US, the next-of-kin of the service person got a telegram, delivered by a Western Union employee, a telegraph boy. Everybody hated to see the telegraph boy in the neighborhood, for fear he might be bringing that kind of telegram to a neighbor, or to your house. The telegrams were sent out by the Office of the Adjutant General of the Army, for Army and Army Air Force casualties, and by the Navy for sailors and Marines.

You got these telegrams if your loved one was wounded, missing, or killed. They all read the same:

"The Secretary of War regrets to inform you that (serviceman) was (lightly wounded, seriously wounded, killed in action, died, declared missing in action) on (date). Further details will be forwarded to you as they become available."

This was of course a black day for many families, never to be forgotten. They would write letters, to the army, to friends of their boy if they knew any, wanting details. Sometimes, if a man had been in a unit long enough to have buddies, and they lived long enough to get a chance, they might write. But those were hard letters to write. What do you say? They almost always settled for "he never felt a thing". Some conscientious commanding officers and chaplains tried to write and give details they knew a family would want to know. But not all did, or got the chance, or knew anything to tell the family.

If a man was declared missing, two years later to the day the army would change his status to "missing, presumed killed" and send out letters to the next of kin informing them of this change. This allowed the family to collect on the soldier's GI Life Insurance.

A soldier killed in the field had little in the way of personal possessions - just what he could carry in his pockets, maybe a wristwatch. He had a duffel bag somewhere, but probably had not seen it himself in months. A sailor or an airman might have more personal property. His buddies would go through it and remove anything that might upset the folks at home - no pornography, no condoms, no letters from girlfriends overseas unknown to wives/girlfriends back home. Then this would be boxed up and sent off to be eventually delivered to the next of kin.

The Army Quartermaster Corps had a massive warehouse complex in Kansas City handling the disposition of personal effects of deceased servicemen. Fourteen acres under the roof. If you were killed in Europe, it took about six months for your personal effects to arrive at your home. If you were killed in the Pacific, it took a year.