ESCONDIDO – Kathy Herbert of Escondido knows that her father shed his blood defending his country and returned from World War II a hero.
What bothers her is how the U.S. government seems to have forgotten.
“I'd like to have acknowledgment from the government of what he did,” said Herbert, whose father died almost a quarter-century ago. “It's disheartening, with all their technology, they can't keep track of the men and women who have earned these awards.”
Herbert knew the bare facts from a yellowing newspaper clipping and a few sentences in a regimental history book she found among her father's personal effects.
Staff Sgt. Robert J. Hutson, who grew up in Julian and was then 22, earned the Distinguished Service Cross – the Army's second-highest award for combat valor. Hutson received it for actions in Italy on July 5, 1944.
Hutson and another soldier charged a pair of German machine-gun nests from which gunners were firing on wounded troops. They killed 11 German soldiers with their rifles and a grenade.
Herbert hit a brick wall in her sporadic efforts to obtain government records that would verify her father's bravery in battle. The Department of Defense could barely document that he had ever served.
None of the military branches keeps centralized records of the men and women it rewards for valor. Although the nonprofit Congressional Medal of Honor Society tracks recipients of the highest combat award, the Medal of Honor, no one maintains a complete list of the other medals.
Pentagon officials frequently blame their lack of documentation for pre-1973 awards on a fire that year at a government warehouse in St. Louis. The blaze destroyed millions of personnel records.
Each year, hundreds of veterans or their families run into this barrier. Some of them write to their congressional representatives for help. Others give up in frustration.
The lucky ones find Doug Sterner, a Vietnam War veteran from Pueblo, Colo., who has spent thousands of hours retrieving stories of valor from forgotten government files.
Sterner discovered that the National Archives keeps all “general orders” the armed forces issue when they approve medals. Few people in the Pentagon or congressional offices – the places where most requests are directed – know about this back-channel way of obtaining award citations.
Using the Freedom of Information Act, Sterner has compiled a database with records for at least 120,000 of the estimated 750,000 valor awards the Pentagon has issued over the years.
Many of them are posted on his Web site, homeofheroes.com. Sterner has helped to verify the valor of hundreds of veterans and debunk the false claims of others.
Sterner was the driving force behind the Stolen Valor Act of 2006, which criminalizes false claims of valor. Now he is pushing for legislation that would require the Defense Department to create a searchable, public database for valor awards. Although the bill has been introduced in both houses of Congress, it appears unlikely to move out of subcommittees before the end of the current legislative session.
Last month, Herbert found Sterner's site and wrote to him. He confirmed that her father had earned the Distinguished Service Cross and told her how to get the citation. Working through the office of Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, Herbert received a copy of the general order documenting the award just before Veterans Day.
Herbert had known about her father's life after the war. He became a purchasing agent, scuba diver and private pilot. He taught school and later worked for General Atomics before starting R.J. Supply Co., an industrial-supply business in San Diego.
Hutson was friendly and outgoing, but he rarely told his war stories. They died with him when he succumbed to cancer in 1984.
Now Herbert is glad she can reassemble the missing parts of his life for her daughter, Sarah.
Sarah is a college student studying in Italy, not far from the scene of her grandfather's heroics, and is absorbing World War II history.
“We wanted to bring some little pieces of information together,” Herbert said. “It's kind of a legacy we can leave with her.”
Steve Liewer: (619) 498-6632; steve.liewer@uniontrib.com
