This letter was furnished to past Reunion Chair Caryn Neff whose father, Otha Starkey, served in the Headquarters Company of 314th Regiment. It is a good approach to finding people using the power of the Internet. Phil Jackson is the person that sent the letter below to Caryn, and Phil’s father served in Headquarter of Company I of 314th Regiment.

“Hi Caryn,

I've been doing a rather exhaustive search for I Company men who knew my father. Remarkably, I have found 3 or 4. I remember we emailed about using internet tools to find men who knew your Dad. Here's the steps I've been using to locate them:”

(1.) I use USSearch to search for the name including the middle initial and try to limit the search to those over 80. Fortunately there were a lot of rather unique and unusual names back then. Hopefully I find only one person who meets the criteria. This will also narrow the search because it gives the city/state in which they live.

http://www.ussearch.com/

(2.) Next I go to white pages.com to look for their address and/or phone number. USSearch has a habit of including people who have died so you need to check here for the latest information. Whitepages.com gives you their info for free so you don't have to pay for it on USSearch unless you want to.

http://www.whitepages.com/

“I've had reasonable success doing this and I know you've been searching for men who knew your father. I hope this helps.

I just received a copy from the National Archives of an order from the 314th that awarded the Combat Infantry Badge to the men of the 314th. It's 37 pages long and your father's name is listed under the Regimental HQ Company. The copy they sent is pretty dark. I have to lighten it up and then I'll scan it. When I do, I'll email it to you and it might be a good list of names to try to contact.”

Phil