Jul/Aug 2008 - Korean War Veterans Association

BUSINESS
Ask the Secretary
14
Solving the mystery of the “Missing Dart”
We receive many inquiries regarding people who served in the
Korean War—and a lot of other wars as well. We cannot help
everybody, but we can—and do—try. Our willingness to help is
not purely altruistic. The fact is that we learn a lot about the
processes involved in uncovering information about veterans and
about the people with whom we deal.
Unfortunately, we cannot always help the people who come to
us. Therefore, when we succeed we are understandably happy.
Sometimes we get lucky and find what people are looking for
right away. At other times, the process is lengthy and time consuming.
And, we have learned, the more help we can get from people
not involved directly in the process, the higher the chances are of
success. (Look at our “Recon” section for examples of the help
we seek—and often get.)
This thread of emails back and forth between Ginny Sanders
and KWVA Secretary demonstrates the process and the results. It
manifests the success that can be earned through mutual cooperation
and teamwork. Hopefully, some of you may add to Ms.
Sanders’ store of information—which will put an even happier
ending to the story.
Hello, Mr. Cohee….
Is there any way to find out what branch of service someone
was in who served in the Korean War? My sister-in-law’s father
served in the Korean War but she doesn’t know what branch of
the service he was in. He passed away in 1976 and there are no
other family members alive. So she has no one to ask.
I am researching her family history for her and it would mean
so much to her if I could find out something about his military
service.
His name was James Paul Dart and he lived in San Francisco.
Thank you for any help that you could give me.
Ginny Sanders
Start with our website….
Ginny:
The only sure way that I am aware of to find out someone’s
branch of service is to get a copy of his military service records.
You can do this by going to our web site, www.kwva.org, and on
the right hand side of the home page click on “How to Request
Military Service Records or Prove Military Service.“ Then, just
follow the instructions.
There is another possibility; if your sister-in-law, or anyone,
for that matter, knows the unit that her father served with or
maybe has a picture of him that shows a patch on the left shoulder,
we can probably determine his branch of service.
I hope this has been of some help and please let me know if
you are successful. Best regards,
Frank Cohee, National Secretary,
Korean War Veterans Association
Maybe Mr. Dart was in the Navy….
Mr. Cohee:
Thank you so much for responding to my e-mail.
Unfortunately, my sister-in-law does not have a picture of her
father, which is one reason I was so interested in obtaining his
military records. I was hoping that I might be able to obtain a
photograph of him through these records.
I have looked at the site “How to Request Military Service
Records,“ but I thought that I needed to know what branch of the
service that he was in before they could help me. My sister-inlaw
is guessing that her father was possibly in the Navy, since he
worked at the shipyard in San Francisco.
She does know that her father fought in land battles while he
was in Korea. Do you know if the Navy ever fought in land battles
in Korea?
Thank you for all of your help.
Ginny Sanders
Practically everyone fought in land battles….
Ginny:
There were times that everyone was fighting land battles in
Korea, no matter what branch of service. However, if your sisterin-law’s
father was fighting land battles, he was probably not in
the Navy.
I would go ahead and send in the request and use the Army as
the branch of service. If it is returned unknown, then resubmit it
and put the Navy as his branch of service. Of course, he could
have also been in the Marines.
I had some more thoughts about what she might do. She
should contact the local Veteran’s Service Officer (listed in the
“Government” pages of her telephone directory), who might be
of some help.
Another good possibility is to contact her local congressional
representative. Believe me, they can really be helpful in these situations.
Once again, good luck.
Frank Cohee
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