World War 2 records for USA Army

InchicoreDude

I have an old photo of a soldier who visted my home when my father was just 5. I would like to research this side of my family - to see if I still have any relatives from this family branch still in America. Here is the only information I have:
- His name
- He served in the US Army
- He visited my home around 1950, suggesting he may have served in WW2
- His mothers name (And her baptism record from Ireland)
- Name of a friend who was with him when he visited
- Probably lived in Ohio or Chicago

So, My plan was to try to reseacrh US military records for somebody who matched his name. I was hoping that this would give me more information, like his exact address for example. However, the following link suggests that I would need more than his name:

http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/public/general-public.html

My question: Do I have any hope of finding anything with so little information? Is it possible to search US military records with just the name?

pinkypinky

This is beyond my area of knowledge but some general advice.
You can probably approximate an age from the photo. US censuses are searchable online - get yourself a free trial from ancestry.com -they have all kinds of 20th century US records. Just make sure you cancel it after 10 days or you'll get trapped into payment. I know with British WWII records you often have to prove direct descent to be allowed view them - they're too recent. Not sure what the data protection laws are like in the US.