I’ve been involved in arranging funerals and burials at a national cemetary for my father, my father in law, my brother, and others.
All veterans.
If the DD214 was available, great. If not - there were hoops to jump through. Not insurmountable hoops, but still....
I was told from the day I joined to save a copy of every document of service or performance. I often used my own files to fill in holes in the official record when it converted to microfiche or later to database.
I must say though that when the conversions took place my official hard copy files were forwarded to me by St. Louis.
Did not know that forty years later they are still recovering burned files. That’s a good thing.
My father served in combat during the Korean War and I’ve always wanted to go to whatever reunion of the soldiers he served with. It is tough to find out much about it except that we still have his pictures and his CIB. Korea looked like the moon in 1952.
Sisters boyfriend was able to get Treated at the VA despite Dishonorable DC because of this. Wonder how many others?