Fold3 HQ

New States Added to WWII Draft Registration Card Collection!

We’ve updated our WWII Draft Registration Card collection and added records from Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Iowa, and Washington! We now have Draft Registration Cards from 38 states or regions in this collection!

There were seven draft registration periods in the United States for World War II service. The first draft registration was held on October 16, 1940—before the United States had entered the war. Men ages 21—36 were required to register at their local draft board. The second draft registration was also held prior to the American entrance into the war, on July 1, 1941. This registration was for men who had turned 21 since the previous registration date nine months earlier.

The third (February 16, 1942) and fifth (June 30, 1942) registration periods expanded the ages required to register; the age ranges for the third were extended to 20–21 and 35–44, while the fifth extended them to ages 18–20. The sixth registration (December 10–31, 1942) was for men who had turned 18 since the fifth registration six months prior. There was also a seventh registration, known as the “Extra Registration,” from November 16 to December 31, 1943, which was for American men ages 18–44 who were living abroad.

The cards from the fourth registration (April 27, 1942; for men ages 45–64) are not included in the WWII Draft Registration Cards but in Fold3’s WWII “Old Man’s Draft” Registration Cards collection.

Information on the WWII Draft Registration Cards may include the man’s name, address, telephone number, age, place of birth, country of citizenship, name and address of the person who will always know the registrant’s address, employer’s name, place of employment, and a description of the registrant.

Pictured below is the draft card for Army Pfc. Clifford M. Mills. He served in the 319th Glider Field Artillery Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division. In September 1944, Mills was reported MIA in the vicinity of Wyler and Zyfflich, Germany. For more than 75 years, his remains were unaccounted for until January 2019, when they were identified in Belgium. He was returned to his hometown and buried in Troy, Indiana

Search our Fold3 WWII Draft Registration Card collection today!

12 Comments

  1. Russell De Rose says:

    Illinois WWII draft registration cards? I had 7 uncles that registered for WWII from Illinois. Are their records available? Did the local draft boards keep these records?

    • Shelly says:

      Russell, the draft registration cards are literally cards. Not a huge amount of information, but helpful and potentially interesting if you’re researching your family.

      If they enlisted in the army rather than registering for the draft, that’s a separate database. Here’s a free version -https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2028680

      If they did serve in the military and you wanted the full military records, they could be ordered for a fee. https://www.archives.gov/research/military/genealogy.html

  2. […] *  New Records Available To Search This Findmypast Friday, 26 April 2019 *  New States Added to WWII Draft Registration Card Collection! [Fold3] 3)  Genealogy Education – Webinars:*  GeneaWebinars […]

  3. kay says:

    What I love about these card, is the signatures or the individual.
    I have some on my husbands family, was so surprised that one of them looked almost
    like my husbands. Check them out if you have a copy of your deceased Ancestor.

  4. Shirley Jones-Jackson says:

    Found out from these cards that my dad registered in Kansas and his registration information was sent to Sharp County Arkansas. New information that he was ever in Kansas. I was really happy to find this. Trying to contact relatives of the people he worked for in Kansas.

  5. Dwight says:

    The WWI Draft registration cards were treasures but I’ve been dismayed by the wide range in the quality of the images. Would like to know if anyone knows if the originals of the WWI Draft cards are still in existence anywhere and whether there are an plans of “scanning anew” some of those that were literally blurry as no doubt the original cards weren’t blurry and I remember sending a relative a copy of his grandfather’s WWI Draft card and his disappointment when he saw how blurry it was. All I could tell him was “some of the copies were crystal clear and others are the opposite.

  6. James Horn says:

    I worked for a manager once who was in the first draft. He was due to be discharged Dec 11, 1941. Oh well.

  7. Capt. James E. Feldmayer, MD

    Army Air Force in India

    I am very proud of my dad and want to learn everything about him that he did not tell me before passing in 1995.

  8. Augustina says:

    Hmm it looks like your blog ate my first comment (it was extremely long) so I guess I’ll just sum it up what I wrote and say,
    I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog. I as well am an aspiring blog writer but I’m still new to
    the whole thing. Do you have any points for rookie blog writers?

    I’d genuinely appreciate it.

  9. Right here is the right webpage for anyone who wants to find out about this topic.
    You realize so much its almost hard to argue with you (not that I
    actually will need to…HaHa). You certainly put a new spin on a topic that
    has been written about for ages. Great stuff, just great!

  10. SFC Jack R. Arnold says:

    My name is SFC Jack R. Arnold, 18B, U.S. Army Special Forces (Ret.). My Serial Number was/is RA-18927582. I was born at 0423 hours on Tuesay, 04 July 1950 in Boothroy Memorial Hospital, Goodland Twp., Sherman Co., Kansas and I registered for the Military Draft on or about Thursday, 04 July 1968 in Redding, Shasta Co. California, but more likely within a few days following my date of birth since I lived at the time in Summit City, Shasta Co., California. I would receive a Military Draft Notice at about my ninth month of service when serving with Co. C (Ranger-LRP) 75th Infantry (Airborne), I Field Forces, Viet-Nam (IFFV). My Primary Military Occupational Specialty was 11B2P, Light Weapons Airborne Infantryman, and my Duty MOS by line and paragraph number was 11F2V, Infantry Scout and Intelligence, Ranger-LRP. I was initially cross trained as an O5B2V-Single Channel Radio-Telephone Operator, Ranger-LRP, the single most crucial position on a LRP Team, and because of previous medical training I would also serve as a LRP Team medic (MOS 91B2V) on any team with which I would perform long range patrols. Eventually, I would serve as the Assistant Team Leader (ATL) on LRP Team 2-2 (Double Deuce Let Me Loose). I would serve in total three back-to-back Tours of Duty during the Viet-Nam War, (Sunday, 27 July 1969-Monday, 02 August 1971). I would perform over 50 Longe Range Patrols throughout the breath and depth of South Viet-Nam. In addition to which I would perform missions characterized solely as Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols into Secret Base Area-602-Laos (a CIA War) and into Secret Base Area 702-Cambodia. Cambodia was at that time involved in the early years of a bloody civil war which made any execution of Longe Range Reconnaissance Patrol missions a very dicey thing. Because on one side you were conducting operations against the NVA (North Vietnamese Army, more officially known as the Peoples Army of North Viet-Nam or PAVN) and the Main Force Viet-Cong, the VC were masters of torture, dismemberment and cruelty, which all by itself was quite exciting, and, if that was’nt enough danger for you, well, you might end up confronted by some very testy Cambodians, who could be particularly blood thirsty bastards. So, while operations into Laos and Cambodia required extreme stealth, contacts in the form of firefights happened with some regularity. Both Laos and Cambodia were countries in which substantial lengths of the Ho Chi Minh Trail Network (originating generally from Southwest North Viet-Nam) existed which enabled North Vietnamese forces to use that trail network as its primary avenue of approach, and furthermore enabled enemy forces to establish administrative, medical, logistical and re-supply staging nodes, and tactical launch sites for operations into South Viet-Nam as well as sanctuary laagers for those NVA and Main Force Viet-Cong units which were either refitting, re-equipping, resting, and/or replacing troop loses which had been sustained as a result of having been mauled by U.S. and Allied Forces. In operating against those formidable forces I would sustain my first Wound in Action immediately following an attempted infiltration of a Long Range Patrol in the early morning hours of Tuesday, 16 September 1969. I was hit by either a 7.62×39 Soviet AK 47 round, or more likely a Chicom Type 56 (Chinese Communist) bullet to the right elbow for which I have as yet to receive orders and a citation for the first award of the Purple Heart. It was a pretty common event in those years to receive the Purple Heart less the citation itself and a set of orders. and sometimes a Soldier or Marine might receive just a set of orders, or only the citation, less the Purple Heart. But had I have been an officer let there be no doubt as whether or not I would have received a Purple Heart. I would go on to serve my second Tour of Duy with the Scout Platoon of B Troop, 7th Squadron (Air), 17th Cavalry, 17th Aviation Group (Combat) operating out of Camp Holloway in the Central Highlands, near to the Air Force Fighter Base at Plei Ku City. I would fly left seat co-pilot postion as as an OH-6A LOH (pronounced Loach) Observer and Machine Gunner. Where I would be wounded a second time early in the afternoon of Thursday, 08 October 1970, once again I was hit by a 7.62×39 Chicom round when the LOH itself, in which I was flying was forced to land on the pioneer airstrip at the MACV-SOG, CCC Launch Site at Ben Het (if my memory serves me correctly) as a result of sustaining multiple hits to the port fuselage from enemy RPD 7.62×39, Light Machine Gun fire. I would serve a third back-to-back Tour of Duty with Company N (Ranger-LRP) 75th Infantry, 173rd Airborne Brigade (Separate). Where I would primarily serve in my Secondary MOS of 91B4V, Combat Field Medic-Ranger, which is presently MOS 68W4V. I would eventually be appointed to lead both Charlely and Delta Teams in turn. I was the only none hard striper (I was a Specialist Fifth Class) Team Leader to ever lead a Long Range Patrol Team in November Company. To continue with the initial subject, foolishly, I failed to keep that Draft Notice for posterity, regarding it as something of an insult since I was a Regular Army Soldier-a 75th Ranger-LRP-there were no draftees in Charley Rangers to my knowledge, or for that matter according to any other Ranger in Charley Company. Every single Ranger-LRP in Charley Company was an RA (Regular Army) Soldier, there were no US’s (Draftees) out of a total strength of 230 men by TO&E, which represented the largest Infrantry Company by number of men assigned in the entire U.S. Army. Our country still had an Army in those years before the All Volunteer Army BS and political correctness set in and was foisted upon the U.S. Army and the nation at large. The U.S. Army, and, as it follows, the nation at large, was better for the Draft than without the Draft. By political correctness you have to see what this scourge has done to the U.S. Army to comprehend what I mean. In any event, does Fold3 host a repository for the Viet-Nam War Draft Registration Cards, and in turn, those Draft Notices sent to young men of a certain age, and, if so, is it possible to obtain a copy of that document which I filled-out, and which because of, I was to receive as a Draft Notice, when once I was serving as a Regular Army Soldier then serving in the Viet-Nam War? In not one single instance in each of the three Combat Arms units with which I served during the Viet-Nam War was there to be found a draftee. In each unit C/75th, B/7th/17th, N/75th each and every man with which I served voluntarily enlisted in the Regular Army, voluntarily enlisted for Combat Arms or Combat Support, volunteered for Jump School, volunteered for service in the Viet-nam War, volunteered for duty as either a Ranger-LRP or as a Oh-6A Observer, and then went on to volunteer for mulitple subseqent Tours of Duty. About the Scout Platoon of Bravo Troop 7/17 Cav. in August of 1970 the Platoon had 12 LOH’s in revetments on the flightline, by January of 1971 that platoon had sustained 19 Loached hit by enemy ground fire or shot down or forced landed in hostile territory. Each man reporting to the Scout Platoon was either Wounded in Action or Killed in Action according to the date that he reported to the Scout Platoon. My Basic Active Service Date is Friday afternoon, 09 August 1968 having enlisted in the Regular U.S. Army at the Oakland Armed Forces Examination and Entrance Station at Oakland, California. Some 42 years on I would retire at Fort Bragg, North Carolina on Sunday, 04 July 2010. During those years I would serve in a number of Overseas Postings, the last of which was service in the Afghan War from Thursday, 18 September 2003 to Friday, 31 December 2004. Where I would serve as the Detachment Sergeant for an 88 man Special Forces Combat Support Detachment. At the same time my son, Sergeant Adam J. Arnold was serving in Iraq. Adam was 29 years of age and he left a young wife at home with a little boy no more than 18 months old as she was pregnant with their second baby boy. Iraq would be Adam’s third and final war. And to be sure Adam has his war stories yet to be told. On that Tour of Duty I would be, at 53 years of age the oldest 11B/18B to serve in Afghanistan. But that is not the record though; on a Tour of Duty immediately preceding that which I served, Master Sergeant Skip Baker of Las Vegas, Nevada would be the oldest 11B/18B/18Z to serve in the Afghan War, 2002-2003 at 59 years of age; MSG. Baker served as a Team Sergeant and he kicked mucho ass. MSG. Baker was also a Viet-Nam War Veteran, 1967-1968, having served with the 25th Infantry Division as an 11B-Light Weapons Infantryman; and, Sergeant John F. Whitaker (Sgt. Whitaker had requested of his own volition, and was granted an administrative reduction in rank from Major/O-4 to Sergeant/E-5 so that he could once again go to war and fight for his county). Sgt. Whitaker was 57 years of age when he served his Tour of Duty in the Afghan War, 2003-2004 as an 11B/12B/18C. As as aside, Major/Sergeant Whitaker was a faithful Mormon, the father of 15 children and the grandfather of 11 grandchildren. When a much younger Sergeant Whitaker had served in the Viet-Nam War, 1968-1969, as a 12B4S (Special Forces Demonlitions Sergeant)( In those years a “S” suffix meant Special Forces Qualified, nowadays it means Special Operations Qualified and has nothing to do with being Special Forces Qualified) he had been wounded in action five different times or an average of once every 73 days, just like clock work. Sgt. Whitaker, would receive three Puple Hearts for Wounds Received in Action; if in the event Sgt. Whitaker have had been serving as a young Engeneer Leiutenant, he would have received five Purple Hearts for five Wounds Received in Action. Sgt. Whitaker and I were friends, both of us were from California at the time of our respective enlistments into the Regular Army, John was from Southern California and I was from Northern California, anything above Paradise and those respective counties on an east-west thrust line is Northern California, anything below Paradise is Southern California as much then as now. I give this only as a personal opinion. I have observed that for the most part Fold3 seldom speaks to those veterans of the Korean and Viet-Nam Wars. Both wars were fought against the on rush of communism and one nation after another had fallen to the onslought of communism, indeed, as if they were dominoes. America, France and Great Briton were the three principle countries to stare communism down and fight the necessary wars against communism where ever that cancer was to be found. The casual reader may notice that each one of us started out our careers in the Regular U.S. Army as Infantrymen as is so often the case with Special Forces men nowadays, just as in years past and, many hundreds of us enlisted in the Regular U.S. Army from California, but, I do not know of one man who retired as a Professional U.S. Army Soldier to California. Not Professional Combat Arms Soldiers, in any event. I would receive a total of 42 months of Combat Pay. This does not mean that there were only 42 months of imminent danger. There are many places where Special Forces, 75th Rangers and other units less known find themselves operating that go completely unnoticed by the American public and even the rest of the U.S. Army. When speaking of danger, there are many kinds of danger, for example I fell 120 feet out of a UH-IH helicopter. A friend of mine Master Sergeant Franze Christian Shouf fell from a mountain immediately North of Neu Schwannstein when conducting mountain training and montain operations, he was then serving on ODA 6, A Company, 1st Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group (Abn.) at Bad Tolz, Germany.
    Another friend of mine Chris, nearly blew his hand off when conducting demonlitions training. And I have lost count of the number of my acquaintances and other known only to me by their service who have been killed when performing either static line jumps or Military Freefall jump. As for myself, I would break my neck at C4/5/6 on my 600th static line jump out of one of those alledegdly perfectly good U.S. Air Force Aero Planes, and, I would not know that I had done so until the pain became so great and the paralysis had advanced so far that I could not function correctly. Which is a story all by itself. /signed/ V/R Jack R. Arnold, SFC, 18B, U.S. Army Special Forces (Ret.)

  11. tutorial says:

    I do trust all of the ideas you have presented for your
    post. They are really convincing and will certainly work.
    Nonetheless, the posts are very brief for starters. May you please prolong them
    a bit from next time? Thank you for the post.