Thank you for your thoughts. I agree most people do not understand the combat experience, losses, and how our war dead were handled. To clarify - My cousin Frank was ID'd correctly. Kenneth Vix was also. I have seen other files where Graves Reg pulled an ID out of thin air or assumed because "The tank personnel were sitting in certain spots in the tank that it must be those people (positions)." I've done extensive research on Graves Registration the last 15 years. I write and teach on it as well. I can tell when an identification is good and when it's made up.
From the hundreds of IDPFs I've read, the military sent form letters to "give solace" as you mentioned. That is true. In some of the files they also make notes about the 'emotionally unstable mother' who was seeking information about her son, along with the other mothers/wives of a bomb crew. Had that been a man asking then no notation would have been made. Yet in other files like Harvey Robitshek (you can search him on my website and read his 361 page file https://wwiirwc.com) the military covered their asses to make sure his father had answers to all his questions and everything was done correctly.
I think the public, from all my research, really had no idea how it all worked. They were told the bare minimum through propaganda and newspapers, telegrams and letters, so would of course have questions. They would of course wonder if the remains were that of their loved one. The bigger issue in the article I wrote is about cognitive dissonance and how that impacted the family and the generations.
Thank you for your thoughts. I agree most people do not understand the combat experience, losses, and how our war dead were handled. To clarify - My cousin Frank was ID'd correctly. Kenneth Vix was also. I have seen other files where Graves Reg pulled an ID out of thin air or assumed because "The tank personnel were sitting in certain spots in the tank that it must be those people (positions)." I've done extensive research on Graves Registration the last 15 years. I write and teach on it as well. I can tell when an identification is good and when it's made up.
From the hundreds of IDPFs I've read, the military sent form letters to "give solace" as you mentioned. That is true. In some of the files they also make notes about the 'emotionally unstable mother' who was seeking information about her son, along with the other mothers/wives of a bomb crew. Had that been a man asking then no notation would have been made. Yet in other files like Harvey Robitshek (you can search him on my website and read his 361 page file https://wwiirwc.com) the military covered their asses to make sure his father had answers to all his questions and everything was done correctly.
I think the public, from all my research, really had no idea how it all worked. They were told the bare minimum through propaganda and newspapers, telegrams and letters, so would of course have questions. They would of course wonder if the remains were that of their loved one. The bigger issue in the article I wrote is about cognitive dissonance and how that impacted the family and the generations.
Fascinating and definitely one of those stories worth remembering as we look through our own military ancestors.
Thank you for reading!