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Smit , Abraham Johannes Nicholas (A J N)

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Identity
Person No.
32984
Service No.
73251472
Last Name
First Name
Abraham Johannes Nicholas
Initials
A J N
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
Age at Death
30
Death Record
Date of Death
Cause code
DIS 6,079
Died of disease
Cause of Death
Died of Medical Reason, at Oshakati
Military Service
Branch
Army
Rank
Sergeant
Regiment
Unknown
Defence Force
SADF 3,839
South African Defence Force
Notes

Husband of Mrs. H. D. Smit, of Danville

Research notes


4 Sep 2026: Regiment leftover "South African Catering Corps" (a branch, not a specific regiment) moved to Corps, per John's decision on the broader Regiment/Corps field-swap review.
14 Sep 2026: Pro Patria Medal added -- database-wide sweep for SADF Border War operational-area deaths within the medal's gazetted window (25 Jun 1976 - 27 Apr 2003), per the warrant's died-before-qualifying-period provision. See PersonAward.Citation for the gazette references.
14 Sep 2026: Pro Patria Medal added earlier today REVERTED -- John obtained the actual Government Gazette (GG 5171/5575); the "died before completing the qualifying period" provision relied on does not exist in the primary text (it was a secondary-source claim). Actual Rule 5 requires (a) combat/enemy-caused incident, (b) a Ministerially-acknowledged operation (clasp), or (c) 55+ continuous/90+ non-continuous days in an operational area -- none of which this record's cause of death clearly demonstrates.
25 Sep 2026, Unit2 service-branch sweep: the stored Secondary Unit "Air Force" was CLEARED. It was not a sub-unit, it was a service-branch word, and it CONTRADICTED this record's own Branch, "Army". Across the roll 787 records carried such a contradiction; judged against Corps and Regiment -- independent of both columns -- the evidence backed Branch 744 times and Unit2 not once. Branch is therefore kept and the contradicting word removed. Nothing is guessed: this man's branch of service is already recorded, and his sub-unit, if any, is simply not known.

Citations
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