Chief, I don't have a dog in this hunt, but your mention of the incomplete condition of modern military records brings an example to mind. My records, including seven letters of commendation, one from the Naval Aide to President Kennedy for White House service, and one from the then president of CBS News, for work I did in Spain on the documentary "Lost and Found: One H-Bomb", were lost in the St. Louis fire. I forget the year, but it was the late sixties or early seventies. A classified mission we performed in the Med had the inerest of King Constantine of Greece. He came aboard the cruiser I was TAD on and presented six of us with personally engraved Zippo lighters, with our name, rate, and the dates. We could not be otherwise recognized. I still have the lighter, but there was no mention of the mission in my record; just the orders to the cruiser and back. Its location was not mentioned. Stan