Pacific Wreck Database contributors Stan Gajda and Dick Williams met each other during July of 2001. Their research has returned a dog tag discovered on Guadalcanal to the widow of its former owner.
-
Discovery of the Dog Tag by Stan Gajda
-
Returning the Dog Tag by Dick Williams
|
Stan Gajda
recalls how he discovered the tag: While I was looking at all this a chap turned up with the dogtag around his neck complete with the original chain. I could hardly believe my eyes and asked to see it. He took it off and handed it over. I offered to buy it but he said that it was the only one he had. A week later, after some haggling I won and the same guy appeared again with two other dogtags in his hand. One was badly mutilated like it had lain on a dirt road for years and every vehicle in the world had run over it and the other one was a USN tag. But I pointed to his neck instead and made a pretty generous offer and we made a deal. That is how I got the dogtag. I have also seen tags at the Gifu area that the locals pick up but usually they want pretty big dollars for them. I don't normally collect them, but the original chain clinched this one for me." |
|
|
|
Well, after aq little head scratching, I figgured it was 50-50 he was deceased, either in the action itself, or since the war. I split the likelihood of his dying in action or after in two, and went for the easy half. Surmising he died in action and is buried in Punchbowl offered an easy solution. I called Hawaii 808-555-1212 and got Punchbowl office's phone number. I spoke with a very nice secretary who checked his name against the list and said--no record. OK, thank you. Now, suppose he died after the war... So, how did I find him with one phone call? Off to the computer search engine. I typed in ancestry.com and went straightaway to their Social Security death index database... and what do you know, an exact name match, as a matter of fact a couple of names. Only 4-5 of the last names, so, I printed out the list, went to the Internet White Pages and began the search for phone numbers. There is only one, died in 1992, got SS number in Penna. (The tag had Mrs. Alice Eckard (his mom) Altoona, PA. Showed place of death to be Plainesville, Ohio. Opened up AOL White Pages, there are two Eckards in Plainesville OH. Called first one-voila-his widow. Wary and shy at first, I didn't blame her, she instantly came to life when I read to her the name of his next of kin. That's my mother-in-law, she fairly shouted at me. From then on, the details came fast. This man had been seriously wounded in the Battle of Galloping Horse. Artillery round. Blown up against a tree, he was carted off to the beach more dead than alive and taken to a hospital ship. He never mentioned later losing the dog tag. Yet, I had it from Stan, with chain. Taken off somewhere along the way and lost, I guessed. He came home in from the Solomons in a body cast from under his armpits to below his knees. He had married his only wife in 1947, and they had gone on to have a family and grandchildren. Yes, she would love to have the dog tag. So, it was a nice phone call. She was astounded and I was happy. Thank you Stan, for returning this memento which will be so important to his family. I had a nice talk with his wife and she is most interested in having back a part of him when he was young for his great grandchildren. Eckert enlisted in RA in 1939, was at Schofield Barracks in 1941 when Pearl Harbor was bombed, went overseas, survived it all, came home, married in '48, raised a family and died of a heart attack in 1992. Having given me her address, I trotted off to the Post Office and sent it to her express mail. Two days later she was on the phone to me. It had arrived safe and sound. Weepily happy, she thanked me and I thanked Stan for her-and me. I doubt there is any moral here. Just a chance to do something nice for someone in a time when there is much harm being done to many. I felt good about it, and perhaps that family has a piece of their history they can pass on and recall for a moment someday, how their family man was in a war long ago and far, far away."
|
|
|
|
Gerald Eckard's Army Service I am Gerald Eckard's daughter, Bonnie Snyder. I have been doing some research of my own on my dad's military service. My husband and I have been doing genealogy research the past serveral years so we are kind of use to looking for a 'needle in a haystack'. We are members of Ancestry.com and are very familiar with the SSDI that Dick Williams used to help his search for my dad. Anyway here is what I know of my dad's military service and some things that we have recently discovered. My dad was in the 27th Infantry (known as the Wolfhounds) of the 25th Division. He enlisted in the Army October 2, 1939 (date of induction through Harrisburg, Pa.) He arrived in Honolulu. December 29, 1939 Completed 5 years, 1 month, and 16 days and mustered out November 17, 1944 from Indiantown Gap, Pa. He made the rank of Staff Sargeant August 5, 1943 He arrived back in the United States November 26, 1943 My mom brought a bag of things out to our house on Christmas eve of my dad's, including his service ribbons. My mom also found his service ribbons and after a little research on the internet this is what we have found them to be: Purple Heart Also here is what it says on the dog tag that
we have had in our possesion all these years Did you know Gerald Eckard during WWII? If so, please email us and let us know more about your connection. |
