from some feedback from Antar I've decided how I'll show the countries and dates of service of the unit. If the unit hasn't entered into service at the current game date and time then no country flag or dates of service information will be shown for it. For instace, take below:
Notice that it doesn't have any country information or dates of service info because the ship didn't exist at the current game date and time.
Now if the ship entered into service before the current game date and time then the From: property will be populated. If the ship's end of service date is before the curent game's date and time then the To: property will be populated. If not, the To: property will say 'Unknown'.
As this is a reference document it should reflect the current intel of the time. These changes will accomplish this. If we wanted to be really accurate I could disable showing of ships that didn't exist at the current game date and time (i.e. in this example the Evarts Destroyer Escort wouldn't show up in SOAN until it entered into service). What do you all think about that?
I've also made the From: and To: dates regional independant and thus the date will show according to your regional settings (i.e. the date will show as month/day/year for US but will show differently for European countries)