Stuart VA worker on a mission: find owner of military medal-laden baseball cap

Photo by Joe Crankshaw Is this your cap?" Dick Smerda

of Heritage Ridge wants to find the owner of this military-stye

baseball cap he found at the Veterans Administration Clinic in Stuart.

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2010/feb/10/stuart-va-worker-on-a-mission-find-owner-of-cap/



By Joe Crankshaw

STUART — It is just a baseball cap of the type many veterans wear, with a unit emblem and miniature medals and badges.

It's in a plastic grocery bag sitting on a shelf in a closet at the Veterans Administration Clinic.

"Somebody may be missing that hat," said Dick Smerda, 78, of Heritage Ridge. "But no one knows to whom it belongs."

Smerda, a retired certified public accountant from Jupiter, works one day a week as a volunteer at the clinic. "I confirm appointments, handle papers, do whatever they ask," he said.

Three weeks ago, while tidying up the closet, he found the hat.

He waited for someone to claim it. No one did. So now he has a mission - find the owner and give back his medal-covered cap.

"I'm not a veteran," said Smerda, "but I admire and respect them, and I can imagine that this cap means something to someone."

The dark blue baseball cap has the words "Special Operations Command" embroidered on it, along with a spearhead. Mounted in the center is the silver leaf of a Navy lieutenant commander or Marine Corps lieutenant colonel. The owner of the cap has added miniature replicas of the Purple Heart medal, the National Defense medal, Cold War Victory medal, a Battle of the Bulge commemorative medal, a Sea Service medal and a Vietnam Veterans of America pin.

The current Special Operations Command is headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, and includes all branches of the military service.

Born in Ohio, Smerda lived much of his life in Jupiter, where he was president of the Kiwanis Club, a director of the Jupiter Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Jupiter Police Pension Board.

"I only had two years of ROTC," said Smerda, "and I feel as if I missed something by not being in the service. I guess I try to make up for it by visiting with veterans and helping them as much as I can."

Smerda said he doesn't know how his search for the owner of the cap will end.

He is hoping that the individual will read of his search and claim the cap.

"Of course, I know the owner my have died," he said. "But I hope not."