A little Dilemma

kingskid1611

Gold Member
Feb 23, 2015
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Oklahoma
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Last weekend I got a house to clean for the bank. It was disastrous to say the least. It was one of the worst places I have had to clean in quite a while. It took 4 days and many loads. A lot of good things were found that I will tell you about later and hopefully post pictures of. The back story for the property is as follows..... An Elderly couple passed away in the nursing home and left this house with everything in it. Family was notified but no one really seemed to care. So after about a year the bank had to make a sale. The buyer hired me to do the clean out. I found out later that one of the grandkids did squat there temporarily and made an even bigger mess but didn't mess around any of the grandparents things. Amazing what is in this house.


My dilemma is that the Grandfather was a USMC vet from Vietnam. I have all of his papers including original orders and patches and dd214. How do I go about finding someone who would want this information and history. His name was Paul Garrison McKinney, join date of May 6th 1958. Maybe someone on here may have served with him or may know his family. Let me know what your opinions are on how this should be handled. I would take it the family either doesn't care or doesn't know it exist. I cannot fathom why no one didn't get all this stuff when the couple passed. Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated. I would hope that when my time comes my family will at least dispose of what's left of my belonging in one way or another.
 

I would check newspaper archives for this gentleman's obituary and usually you can get enough there to do a lookup online for a family members address. I would then mail the papers off to whoever you can locate.
 

I would check newspaper archives for this gentleman's obituary and usually you can get enough there to do a lookup online for a family members address. I would then mail the papers off to whoever you can locate.
I have done that and the daughters are not interested in anything. It is kinda sad but I guess that is how things go.
 

Place it in a nice stainless steel box and leave it on his grave. You would be doing the right thing, the next person who finds it laying there, well, that's up to them.
 

kingskid1611:

Is there a nearby VFW post you could check in with?

Good luck to all,

The Old Bookaroo, CM
 

kingskid1611:

Is there a nearby VFW post you could check in with?

Good luck to all,

The Old Bookaroo, CM
I believe there is and I will check. I was told to just throw it out but it meant something to him and as former military I just can't cast it aside.
 

kingskid1611: I can certainly understand that! You could wait until the next Veterans Day, attend the local ceremony with a box of the items, and see if there is anybody of the right age and former branch of service.

Do you know anyone going to DC? People leave items at the Viet Nam Memorial and periodically they are collected and preserved.

"Just throw it out..." doesn't seem like a very good answer.

You're a good man!

Good luck to all,

The Old Bookaroo, CM
 

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