Cpl Sammuel J.
Chavous FOD Narrative |
The Defense POWMIA Accounting Agency
(DPAA) have refused to have this
Soldier identified even with all of
the documentation. The DPAA
will only ID a Soldier if they
figure who and or what they are.
If a non-DPAA can ID one they just
say no. Sad isn't it?
Comparing Vital
Statistics for
FOD Sammuel J. Chavous and
Unknown X-File Blosville X-093. |
IDPF (Individual
Deceased Personal File) gives information
from following Forms: OQMG (Office of the
Quartermaster General ) 371 for FOD Cpl
(Corporal) Chavous: Name, ASN (Army Serial
Number), Rank, Unit, Height, Weight, Eyes
Color, Hair Color, Shoe Type, Shoe Size,
Religion, Race, Location of Death and Date
of Death. Age comes from WD AGO (War
Department, Adjutant General's Office) 0353
Finding of Death of Missing Person.
Fingerprints were not found for Cpl Chavous
from either FBI or Graves Registration Form
No. 1. Cpl Chavous Teeth comes from Graves
Registration Form No. 1.
Form Ia/Op Nr gives
Germany Operations Number Regarding: Enemy
Situation 11 and 12 June 1944. The Form Ia/Nr
is translated from German to English.
Arm of Service comes
from Battle Casualty Report and the Photo
comes from Unit in Spring 1944.
Possible match comes
from GRVPL 293-9 Isolated Grave and also
from IDPF X- File Blosville X-093.
IDPF X-File gives
information from the following Forms:
X-File Designation,
Cemetery, Date of burial, Plot Number and
Burial Unit come from Graves Registration
Form No. 1. The Final Burial Location and
Burial Plot are from QMC Form 1194.
Witness Statement from
Investigation Officer and Interpreter.
Location of death from Graves Registration
Form No. 1.
X-File Conditions of
Skeleton, Height, and Weight from AGRC Form
No. 11 (American Graves Registration
Command). Teeth from Graves Registration
Form NR 1-A, Hair Color, hair Length, Head
Circumference, Shoe Type, Shoe Size, Jacket
Type, Shirt Size, Pant Size, Pant Type,
Socks and Branch of Service from AGRC Form
No. 11. Fingerprints (None) and type of
Uniform Patch and Clothing are from Graves
Registration Form No. 1.
To start comparing
Vital Statistics for FOD Sammuel J. Chavous
and X-File Blosville X-093, the best matches
first. In this case Cpl Chavous foot size 6
½ shoe size is the first connection between
his IDPF and IDPF X-File Blosville 093. You
always have to look for the most common
denominator.
Shoe size is far down
the list of comparison, but Cpl Chavous 6 ½
shoe size is unusual in two respects; 6 ½
shoe size is on the lower end of the
spectrum and Cpl Chavous Height was 5'8 ½.
The average shoe size for that Height would
be an 8 shoe size. Even more telling is the
fact that of all the other men who were
buried at coordinate 422:752 in Normandy, 6
½ shoe size belonged to one soldier. Cpl
Chavous and the Unknown X-File Blosville 093
have the same shoe size.
Using shoe size as the
starting point for both IDPFs a comparison
is done.
Type Cpl
Chavous Unknown Blosville
X-093
Shoe Size 6 ½
D 6 ½ C
Height 5’8
½” 5’8 ½”
Weight 150
lbs Not available
Hair Color
Brown Brown
Head Size Not
recorded 20”
Unit
101st Abn Div Patch 101st
Abn Div Patch
Jacket
Jump Jacket Jump Jacket
Pants
Jump Pants Jump Pants
Boots
Jump Boots Jump Boots
Teeth
Filling Upper
R8 Filling Upper R8
ASN
C-4771 H-9115
The ASN is unusual due
to the fact that H-9115 shows up three times
in the clothing for Cpl Chavous. H-9115 is
the first initial and last four digits of
Hoffman, Richard who was also executed in Le
Mesnil-Angot Southeast of Graignes proper.
There are three
possibilities of why Cpl Chavous has some of
Pfc Hoffman’s uniforms on his buddy. The
first is that men in the same Company often
issued items end up with another man’s
Jacket or Pants coming back from the
Laundry. The second possibility is that
when the bodies were examined at Blosville
they had the wrong clothing put on the wrong
men.
When bodies are brought
into a Cemetery and EMT (Emergency Medical
Tag) have to be filled out. They will check
the body for the type of wound that caused
death on the battlefield. They will also
check for effects and markings on clothing.
The bodies are stripped for the examination,
and then re-clothed. Sometimes the bodies
have been buried with the wrong clothing on.
The third possibly is
that strange as it seems, men going into
Normandy would switch Dog Tags for example.
2 men from Co C of the 507th
Prcht Inf were killed on June 11, 1944 in a
POW strafing in Normandy. After the carnage
had ceased, a Sergeant from the same Company
found them and checked their Dog Tags. When
he looked he realized that they had on each
others Dog Tags. For luck or for other
reasons things like that did happen. In the
case of the Co C 507th Prcht Inf
men there were not just in the same Company,
but the same Platoon and Squad.
For Cpl Chavous and Pfc
Hoffman this was a similar situation. They
were both in the same Machinegun Platoon for
Hq Co 1st Bn 501st
Prcht Inf. Both men were buried at 422:752
so there will never be an answer as to why
they had some of Hoffman’s uniform on
Chavous. The one thing that did not happen
was misidentified those two men. Cpl
Chavous was 3 inches taller that Hoffman and
had much smaller shoe size.
Cpl Chavous was the only man missing in the
Graignes is that matched up with the Height,
Shoe Size and Teeth. No other man who was
killed in Graignes had 6 ½ Shoe Size and
that Height. Short of DNA which JPAC does
not want to do, the family of Cpl Chavous
will never know for sure. He is buried at
St. Laurent Sur Mer as Blosville X-093 in
Plot C-28-33.
Brian N. Siddall
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