The two men the wars did not give back

1945 AND 1951 · STILL UNACCOUNTED FOR

The Wars section of this record proves Mishawaka's dead from the federal files; two of the city's men stand in those files with a mark the files never lift, and this section ran both names against the accounting agency's own current lists to state their standing exactly. Second Lieutenant Edwin Tabaczynski, United States Air Force, born 16 March 1924, home of record Mishawaka, died 20 August 1951 over Korea. The federal Korean War casualty file — the Defense Casualty Analysis System's list, published by the National Archives — marks his remains not recovered; he is one of nine such men among St. Joseph County's forty-three Korean dead, and the county's Vietnam accounting holds no Mishawaka name at all: the one unaccounted-for man of that war in this county is South Bend's, and the boundary is printed in the Wars section so neither city adopts the other's. Tabaczynski's present standing, checked for this section in the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency's Korea (PMKOR) Report for Indiana (Unaccounted For), is that he stands on it still: the agency carries him as TABACZYNSKI, EDWIN FELIX, 2nd Lt, Air Force, service number AO-2221757, of the 16th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, date of loss 8/20/1951, status Killed in Action, North Korea — the unit and the middle name being the agency list's own additions to what the casualty file gave. His service record stands whole in the Wars section; what stands here is the open end: an Air Force lieutenant of this city whose case the accounting agency still carries as open.

The second man is the sea services' one missing name on Mishawaka's Second World War roll. John Courtland Felabom, Motor Machinist's Mate Third Class, United States Naval Reserve, stands in the Navy Department's wartime summary of the state's naval casualties as missing in action, his parents named at 422 E. Batell Street, Mishawaka — the one man among the city's ten sea-services dead the summary does not close. The Death Roll section carries him at that size, as the summary gives him: no ship, no date, no place. Checked for this section against the agency's WWII Report for Indiana (Unaccounted For) of 11 February 2022, he stands on that list too: FELABOM, JOHN C, MOMM3C, Navy, service number 08752139, unit SNOOK, United States Naval Reserve, date of loss 5/5/1945, China Seas. The boat — the submarine Snook — and the date are the agency's; the wartime summary that is the roll's source names neither. Two wars, two services, one mark: the record of this city can prove these men served, can prove the days they were lost, and cannot bring either of them home. The file that would change that sentence is the accounting agency's, and it is named here because naming it is what an open file is for.

Sources:

1. the Wars, Unrest & Disasters and Wars, Unrest & Disasters section of this history — the casualty-file proofs: Tabaczynski in the Korean War Extract Data File (remains not recovered; one of the county's nine), Felabom in the Navy Department's state summary (missing in action; the Batell Street address).
2. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Korea (PMKOR) Report for Indiana (Unaccounted For) (report of 14 May 2021), read for this section — the Tabaczynski line entire: name, rank, service number, unit, date of loss, status, country of casualty.
3. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, WWII Report for Indiana (Unaccounted For) (11 February 2022), read for this section — the Felabom line entire: name, rate, service number, unit Snook, date of loss 5/5/1945, China Seas.