NOT 62 years. Not fading memories. Not the fact that he was at one end of the country and the others hundreds of miles away.

Nothing, it turns out, could keep a California man stationed at Dahlgren in World War II from finding the two young Fredericksburg women who helped make him feel at home here in the '40s.

Call it the search for Snookie and Polly.

It began when James Alfred Dunnagan took action on a curiosity he'd had for decades.

Dunnagan, who today lives in Hemet, Calif., was a young sailor during World War II. For a time in 1941 and into 1942, he was stationed at Dahlgren in King George County.

From there, he'd often join other servicemen at a USO center in Fredericksburg.

On trips to the USO, which offered dances on Friday nights, Dunnagan and several of his friends struck up a friendship with a group of young women in Fredericksburg.

The two he remembered best were named Snookie and Polly.

According to Dunnagan, "They were wonderful, decent girls who made a sailor forget about being lonely. Their families bent over backward to make us feel like we were at home."

In all the years since, Dunnagan has wondered about the pair.

His curiosity reached a point that just a few weeks back, he took action.

He wrote a letter to the editor of this newspaper, detailing his meeting Snookie and Polly and his hope that someone here would know of them.

In his words: "I was wondering if someone would know whatever became of Snookie and Polly."

No last names, addresses or details, just a hope that someone would know what became of them.

It took all of a few hours for the answers to start coming.

One set came from a faithful newspaper reader, Thelma Carneal, who lives near Bowling Green in Caroline County.