Passport Project 2026 Update
Helmar John Hunt
Alfred Strom
In 2025 the fourth stage of ALBA’s Passport Project wrapped up. The fourth stage focused on volunteers on whom we have very little information to enable a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) search. Most of the volunteers submitted had at least a year of birth to reference. Expectations for finding a passport application on these volunteers is low.
To date 2,574 requests have been filed. 839 responses were received. 605 returned a passport application or certificate of identity, 106 were not found, and an additional 128 returned only a Master Index. In the 1980s many passport records were destroyed due to lack of space. A card noting a passport was issued was retained.
Two of the most recent returns are of volunteers whose brothers were killed in Spain. Helmar John Hunt and Alfred Strom (above) lost their brothers during the Retreats. Photographs of their brothers Hugh Maxwell Hunt and Emanuel Strom are available in the biographical data base as a result of returns from earlier Passport Project FOIA requests.
We are still hoping to see some positive results from some of the 1,735 outstanding FOIAs. As we receive new passport applications and certificates of identity they will be added to the volunteer’s entries.
