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Post by one50 on Jul 25, 2008 9:33:58 GMT 8
I found this when doing some research. www.wwiimemorial.com/registry/cemetery/search/pframe.asp?HonoreeID=761898I don't see Edward on any of the KIA lists for the 503rd. I'm assuming there were other parts of the 161st in the Pacific but not attached to the 503rd? Hence Edward is not on the KIA lists? I just can't seem to find any info on the 161st other than Company C that was attached with the 503rd. Do you know if the 161st Airborne Engineer Battalion was only company C...it seems that way in the lineage section. Do you know of other 161st Airborne Engineer groups in the Pacific during WWII? I get a little confused sometimes as to how the military attaches and detaches groups. Thanks for your help.
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Post by EXO on Jul 25, 2008 13:38:25 GMT 8
One50, Thanks for your message. I have looked into it, and found that Edward R. Kocar was missing from the full listing of 503d PRCT KIA’s. As to why this was, I can only say “mea culpa!”, he should have been there. So I have reloaded the page with his details. I also noticed that though I have a page prepared about him, it wasn’t in sequence. (There’s a page about every 503d Trooper buried in Manila’s American Cemetery, which includes a photograph of each individual headstone. Perhaps it was that I had initially listed the image under the spelling “Kocap.” Kocar’s page is at: corregidor.org/taps/cemetery/htm/kocar_.htm Your message pleases me that if I get something wrong, there’s a chance that it can be fixed when some astute observer spots it. That’s peer-review at its best, and I encourage more of it. The even more interesting aspect that you raised is what happened to the other elements of the 161st?I haven’t been able to find the definitive answer to that question. This much I have found: Company C, 161st Engineer Battalion was designated as the Parachute Company, on 5 May 1943. The 161st Engineer Battalion had been relieved from assignment to the 1st Cavalry Division on 15 March. The 161st Engineer Battalion was redesignated as the Field Airborne Engineer Battalion, and assigned in October to the Airborne Command. Company C, 161st Airborne Engineer Battalion was assigned to the 503d Parachute Infantry Regimental Combat Team in New Guinea. (Source: USA Airborne 50th Anniversary) So let’s throw the challenge out for the definitive answer. exo
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Post by one50 on Jul 26, 2008 4:40:34 GMT 8
A little more research and I see the National Archives & Records Administration, War Department Files has Edward R. Kocar Listed as DNB (Died, Non-Battle). So according to the records he technnically was not KIA (Killed in Action). We will have to do a little more research and see what the 161st was doing around March 14, 1945. What was the date of the State pictures that Fred Hill took? Kocar Is not in the Ohio Picture.
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