I had researched Gunnar serveral years ago, concerning the Serum run by dogsled to Nome to combat the diptheria outbreak.
Since he moved to Everett in 1952, "IF" he did work as a civilian employee of the US Government, records could be obtained via:
http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/archival-programs/civilian-...The World War II Draft Registration (the Old Man's Draft) of 1942, identified Gunnar was employed by the "U.S.S.R. & M. Co." This was the Smelting, Mining, and Refining Company, known as the U.S.S.R. & M Company. They were involved in many mining, dredging projects in Alaska for the US Military:
http://permafrosttunnel.crrel.usace.army.mil/geology/soil_an... So, it appears to be more possible he might have served with a contractor on US government projects, meaning he and his company (or the company where he was employed) obtained contracts to perform work. The War years especially had massive work being completed, the building of military bases, etc. If this be the case, the US National Archives and Records Administration "might" have contract information, but it would be more of the acceptance process, administration of the contracts than actual who did what in them. Basically IF you knew exactly who he worked for, and was able to find a Government contract with that company, his name might not be found anywhere in the record.
For those that don't know just who this person was, just run the name of Gunnar Kaasen in your search engine and you'll find a mass of articles about him and this run, the "creator" of the Iditarod. Balto is also subject of many books and written articles in magazines. The stories are in several languages.
Gunnar is well documented in this Boys' Life article of Feb 1987, pages 21 to 26 . There is a picture of Gunnar and Balto on page 26.
http://books.google.com/books?id=q2YEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA26&am...Balto and the Great Race:
http://books.google.com/books?id=GiQbPjkGT5kC&pg=PT19&am...Gunnar's burial stone and story:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=ka...;
Anna's can also be found by clicking on her name.
Proud to be a Norwegian American
Ron Bestrom
Tacoma, WA