If he died while serving in or at a training encampment, there will be no discharge papers other than death certificate and a decree of death as to the cause while serving in the military. This era or time frame as to when he died was during the WWI conflict ... the year he died was early in the war, did he see action or overseas duty at all? That's another reason why you should send for his history record through the military just to clarify where he was before his death occurred. He was of age to join the military so there won't be a problem there ... my grandfather was under the age of 17 when he attempted to join the military. During basic training contracted pneumonia or at least a very bad infection which left him delirious. They contacted his mother, my Great Grandmother in S. Dakota Territory to indicate to her over her sons serious illness and that she needed to retrieve him. I'm still vague on how he was returned home, he didn't die but was returned to the farm. Bottom line of the story is that Grandpa was 'way' to young to enlist and they never gave him any form of discharge, acknowledgement or anything at all as a memento of his brief stay at the military training camp. I didn't even know he had been in the military until starting this research and the family stories that came out through Hunting and digging. The military had tagged his name as trouble or as an undesirable due to his illegal attempt to gain service through means of a lie. Hence, the reason [family name changed] during the 'Great War' as it was called. He didn't lie so much as just illegally change his name. Not! entirely, just the surname, his step-father's, he used his surname of TRIMBLE and just called himself that instead of what his real surname was of SMITH. He never changed it back or utilized his former name of SMITH ever again. Shelia