Korea: two proven, one identified, and the county's forty-three

1950 – 1953

The county frame, counted: The federal record of the war's dead is the Korean War Extract Data File of the Defense Casualty Analysis System, published by the National Archives as the state list U.S. Military Fatal Casualties of the Korean War for Home-State-of-Record: Indiana. Counted from that list, St. Joseph County's dead are forty-three — the same forty-three South Bend's pass enumerated — from Private Clinton L. Anderson, killed September 10, 1950, to the last names of 1953. Nine of the forty-three are marked in the file as remains not recovered.

How the file divides, and what it proves for Mishawaka: The file records the home of record by county for its thirty Army dead of this county, and by city for the thirteen who died in the Air Force, the Navy, and the Marine Corps. Of those thirteen, eight are South Bend's, two are Walkerton's, one is New Carlisle's — and two are Mishawaka's. Edwin Tabaczynski, second lieutenant, United States Air Force, born March 16, 1924, home of record Mishawaka, died August 20, 1951; the file marks his remains not recovered — he is one of the county's nine, and he is Mishawaka's own unaccounted-for of this war, carried in the unaccounted-for article above. Joseph H. Veevaete, private first class, United States Marine Corps, born October 17, 1932, home of record Mishawaka — a name of the town's Belgian colony — died May 1, 1953, in the war's last spring; his remains were recovered. Two names are therefore Mishawaka's Korean War dead on the proof of the federal file itself.

The third name, on stated evidence: The county genealogical society's veterans index carries, under Penn Township–Mishawaka, "Meanhout, Robert F. — Korean — Pvt," with no burial place recorded. The federal list carries Robert F. C. Maenhout, private, United States Army, born 1928, of this county, died October 10, 1951, remains recovered. Name, rank, war, and township agree across the two records, and the Maenhouts of the index are a Mishawaka family whose other sons stand in its Second World War rows; the blank burial in the index fits a man who died overseas. The identification is printed as what it is — two records converging on one man — and his obituary or service record is the settler named in the gaps. The Army's county-only recording means Mishawaka may have more dead among the remaining twenty-nine Army names than any record reached can divide; completing the cross-match of those names against the county index and the town's obituary record is the named settling work, and no estimate is printed in its place.

Sources:

1. National Archives, U.S. Military Fatal Casualties of the Korean War for Home-State-of-Record: Indiana (Korean War Extract Data File, Defense Casualty Analysis System, Record Group 330, as of April 29, 2008): the St. Joseph County rows counted whole (43; city-carrying rows 13, of which Mishawaka 2).
2. St. Joseph County veterans index, Allen County Genealogical Society of Indiana / INGenWeb (the Maenhout entries, Penn–Mishawaka).
3. South Bend pass, wars-second-pass file: the county's 43 enumerated from the same file, with the remains-not-recovered marks.