Huntin those WW I MIA's
I have been hunting for a list of WW I MIA's to determine how many are from my county for the Veterans Memorial. I found out there were a little over 4000 of them but after an extensive internet search I could not find a list. I did find out where there was a list in the National Archives on microfilm but kept getting the runaround. The POW Network told me they have been looking for a list for twenty years. Finally Rolling Thunder came through. So I printed off all 93 pages and found they did have their state listed next to their name. So I went hunting. First I circled all the Tennesseans on the list, about 50 or so. Then I went to our county list of WW I enlistees and marked off all the ones that were from Washington County. It is interesting what you can learn about history from an MIA list. Of course, there were a lot of guys that were in the Navy and the Coast Guard that went down with their ships. The list was in chronological order so those that went missing at the same time were listed together. There were a few clusters of Coastal Artillery guys and I wondered about that. I am guessing it was a cannon mishap such as exploding breeches that turned the guys into pink mist. There were some foreigners on the list that were serving in the US military: England , Scotland, Greece among others. There was one lone Alaskan. I guess the population was about 2000 or so so he was a significant loss to the territory. There were a lot of Tennesseans that were in a Pioneer Infantry Battalion. Curious about that I learned that is what combat engineers were called then. I'm guessing they were used as sappers and went ahead of the infantry. Dangerous job! Strangely, there were two pages of MIA's that occurred after the war ended, all the way up to 1920. Several were crews on ships that struck mines still floating around the North Sea and sank. then there were the soldiers that were in Northern Russia during the war. They actually stayed and fought the Bolshevicks for a year or so. One guy was a POW guard in 1919 that I am guessing disappeared during an escape. A lot you can learn from a list. By the way, I sent the total list to the POW Network. After all this searching, how many MIA's were from Washington County? Two. But that is two whose names will be on our monument. Hobert M Leonard and Virgil C. Mottern.
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"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclination, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." John Adams
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06-17-2011, 06:44 PM
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