My name is Andy Adkins; I am the WebMaster of the 80th Division website. My father served with the 80th Division during World War II, initially as a mortar section leader in Company H, 2d Battalion, 317th Infantry Regiment and was eventually promoted to Company Commander as the war was winding down. He kept a journal during the war and in the mid 80's presented me and my sister with copies of his diary. Needless to say, I was overwhelmed. I knew, of course, he had fought in the war and had heard a few war stories, but nothing like this.

My dad died in 1989 after losing a battle to cancer. While he did talk a little more about the war, he didn't say nearly as much as what he wrote in the diary. In the mid 90's I regained an interest in World War II. I took my dad's diary, started working on revising it, adding research and eventually You Can't Get Much Closer Than This: Combat with the 80th "Blue Ridge" Division in World War II Europe was published in October 2005 by Casemate Publishing. It was immediately chosen as a "Selection of the Month" for the Military Book Club in November 2005.

I've been to several reunions of the 80th Division Veterans Association, as well as other veterans associations. Our veterans are leaving us every day and soon, us baby boomers and our kids will find it very difficult to find information about our fathers and grandfathers who fought in World War II. I came across what is known as company Morning Reports [click here for example of a Morning Report in PDF format] which provide detailed personnel information about the men and activities of each company in the division. I asked the leadership of the 80th Division Veteran's Association if they would allow me to digitize the 80th Division's Morning Reports and make them readily available on the Internet.

During the September 2006 Annual Meeting in Columbus, Georgia, I was privileged to receive the 80th Division's Morning Reports. I digitized the majority of the 80th Division Morning Reports and placed them on the Internet [http://www.80thdivision.com/WebArchives]. This project took approximately five years to complete, working off-hours (see image below of the Microfiche Cabinet.

I have also run across other types of historical documents in my research such as After Action Reports, Interviews conducted after a battle, and the sought after General Orders. As I find these and scan/digitize them, I'm also putting them online.

This is an all volunteer effort and does not cost the 80th Division Veteran's Association anything since I'm using publicly available computer equipment and am doing this on my own time. There are over 100,000 images (Morning Reports and General Reports) on this site. I am happy to provide these records to the world, but my focus is for those who fought with the 80th Division during World War II. I know there are family members of 80th Division veterans who, like me, are anxious to learn more about their fathers, brothers, uncles, and grandfathers who fought during World War II. I do this for all of us.

God Bless Our Veterans! God Bless the U.S.A.!

Andy Adkins
Gainesville, FL
adkins@80thdivision.com

Please note that this website does NOT have access to personnel service records.
Those can be requested from the National Archives at www.archives.gov/veterans.

• 80th Division Morning Reports
• 80th Division After Action Reports
• Oral Histories, and Miscellaneous Reports
• 80th Division Unit Histories
• 80th General Orders (1944, 1945 Silver Star, Bronze Star, Air Medal, Purple Heart Awards - not complete listing ... yet)
• 80th Operational History (Aug44 - May45) - NEW: Added JAN 2016