Personal belongings, burial inquiries, family decisions, the undelivered flag and remembrance in France.
The family behind the file
The belongings sent to Aunt Flora
Johnny’s belongings tell a more personal story than a service chronology alone. One Army inventory lists twenty photographs, five letters, a religious medal, souvenir coins and a wristwatch. Another lists a camera, three rolls of film, a Bible and personal pictures. In August 1945, the Army Effects Bureau wrote to Aunt Flora about forwarding his property. One letter explained that a testament had been damaged by rust before reaching the bureau, but the staff believed she would want it regardless of its condition. These small possessions connect the soldier in the records with the young man his family remembered.
Source: John W. Roling, individual military casualty file, PDF pp. 45, 50, 53 and 58.
Asking where Johnny lay
In February 1946, Mrs. John R. Widmer wrote from Salisbury on Widmer Insurance Agency stationery. The family had been told that Johnny was buried in a military cemetery somewhere in Germany. She wanted the cemetery’s name, his plot and grave numbers, and the nearest town. The Army first explained his temporary burial at Bensheim, then wrote again in March with his new burial location at St. Avold, France. Her handwritten inquiry preserves something the official forms cannot show by themselves: the effort from home to find the precise place where he lay.
Source: John W. Roling, individual military casualty file, PDF pp. 29–30 and 33.
A brother’s choice
In March 1948, Johnny’s brother Frank signed the form choosing a permanent American military cemetery overseas as Johnny’s final resting place. The paperwork was witnessed in Salisbury by notary Gertrude R. Widmer. Later correspondence followed Frank’s move to Louisiana; the change recorded in the file was a change of address, not a reversal of the burial choice. In May 1949, the Army wrote that Johnny had been permanently interred at St. Avold and that military funeral services had been held at his grave. The records preserve both the family’s decision and the long sequence of correspondence after the fighting ended.
Source: John W. Roling, individual military casualty file, PDF pp. 9, 12, 17–19.
Remembered in France
View a historic image of Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial, Saint-Avold, France, circa 1982. National Archives, photograph 117-LC-17 (public domain). This is a view of the cemetery, not Johnny’s individual grave.
A cemetery transcription drawn from American Battle Monuments Commission data lists John W. Roling, with the same service number, at Lorraine American Cemetery in Saint-Avold, France. It also lists a Purple Heart with an oak leaf cluster. That is a useful lead toward a possible repeat award, but the official individual record or award orders still need to confirm the detail.
Sources and research notes for this chapter
Lorraine American Cemetery transcription, surnames R: John W. Roling, 37512628, Plot G, Row 6, Grave 27; Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster. This is a secondary transcription described as derived from ABMC, not a directly inspected official individual record. Army Purple Heart guidance explains that an oak leaf cluster denotes a subsequent award. The exact count remains unconfirmed here.
Johnny’s 64-page individual military casualty file is now in the family archive. It adds the correspondence and personal-property records described above.
Additional source: John W. Roling, Medical Department Form 52b field medical tag, family-preserved photograph from the additional Army packet. The injury entry gives April 3, 1945, 1900 hours near Bittelbronn; the separate tagging entry gives Mosbach, April 4, 1700 hours. The record does not identify his tank number or crew.