• Opening the mystery of 250 WWII letters found in old hat box

    James Gibbard/Tulsa World

    A hatbox found in Oklahoma that contains more than 200 letters from World War II.

    By Berenice Garcia, NBCNews.com

    Purchased for just $1 at an Oklahoma estate sale 15 years ago, an old hatbox contained a mystery decades in the making: an estimated 250 letters from two brothers during their time as soldiers in WWII.

    James Gibbard/Tulsa World

    The soldier in this photograph, included with one of the letters, may or may not be Eural Harvill, who wrote most of them to his parents in Drumright.

    Pamela Gilliland, who was unaware of the letters when she first bought the hatbox, just last week enlisted the help of a history buff, Doug Eaton, to find out more about them.

    Written by sibling soldiers Eural and Robert Harvill, the letters were addressed to their parents, a "Mr. and Mrs. E.H. Harvill, Box 7, Drumright, OK," according to the Tulsa World.

    The letters span from October 1940 to October 1946 with homesickness being the common theme.

    Eaton estimates that there are about 250 letters in the collection, along with postcards, photographs, Christmas cards, and even an insurance policy.

    The ages of the men remains unknown and the letters provide little context as to who they were beyond faithful sons.

    "It's like putting together pieces of a puzzle," Eaton told NBC News on Monday.

    One mystery of the letters revolves around the mention of a woman. "I don't know if she was his girlfriend or his wife," Eaton said.


    Eaton hopes that someone who knew the family will reach out and provide some background.

    But rediscovering the lives of World War II soldiers isn't new territory for Eaton. 

    He was drawn a few years ago to the story of a woman, Wilma Connely, who received long-lost letters from her brother when he served in World War II. With the help of Connely, Eaton published a book, "Letters from Walter."

    The book caught the attention of Gilliland, who had stored the Harvill's letters in her closet for 15 years.

    Now Eaton is carefully sifting through them.

    Eaton's interest in these soldiers was fueled by his involvement with the Oklahoma Honor Flights, a program that flies veterans to visit memorials.

    Still employed as an accountant, Eaton says that this is just a hobby. He doubts if he decides to write a book on the Harvills, he hopes to use the profits to help veterans.

    "If I can donate money to the Honor Flights, that's just icing on the cake," he says. But his first priority is finding a person who may know more. "I really hope to find somebody with the family who knows these two soldiers."

  • World War II vet who provided flag at Iwo Jima dead at 90

     

    AP Photo/Joe Rosenthal, File

    This Feb. 23, 1945 file photo shows U.S. Marines of the 28th Regiment, 5th Division, raising the American flag atop Mt. Suribachi in Iwo Jima, Japan. Alan Wood, a World War II veteran who provided the flag in the famous flag-raising on Iwo Jima has died. Alan Wood was 90. Wood was in charge of communications on a landing ship on Iwo Jima's shores when a Marine asked him for the biggest flag that he could find. Wood handed him a flag he had found in Pearl Harbor.

    By The Associated Press

    A veteran of World War II credited with providing the flag in the famous flag-raising on Iwo Jima has died at his Los Angeles County home. Alan Wood died of natural causes April 18 at the age of 90, his son Steven Wood announced Saturday.


    Wood was a 22-year-old Navy officer in charge of communications on a landing ship on Iwo Jima's shores on Feb. 23, 1945 when a Marine asked him for the biggest flag he could find.

    After five days of intense fighting to capture the Japanese-held island, U.S. forces had managed to scale Mount Suribachi to hoist an American flag. Woods happened to have a 37-square-foot flag that he had found months before in a Pearl Harbor Navy depot.

    Five Marines and a Navy Corpsman raised the flag in a stirring moment captured by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal. Steven Wood said his father was always humbled by his small role in the historic moment.

    In a 1945 letter to a Marine general who asked for details about the flag, Alan Wood wrote: "The fact that there were men among us who were able to face a situation like Iwo where human life is so cheap, is something to make humble those of us who were so very fortunate not to be called upon to ensure such hell."

    In a story on Wood's death, the Los Angeles Times reported that over the years others have claimed that they provided the famous Iwo Jima flag, but retired Marine Col. Dave Severance, who commanded the company that took Mount Suribachi, said in an interview last week that it was Wood.

    "I have a file of more than 60 people who claim to have have something to do with the flags," Severance said from his home in La Jolla, Calif.

    After the war, Wood went on to work as a technical artist and spokesman at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge.

    His wife, Elizabeth, died in 1985. Besides his son, Wood is survived by three grandchildren.

     


    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Swiss-born WWII spy is honored with Arlington burial

    Jacquelyn Martin / AP

    Savana Joyeuse, granddaughter of Dr. Rene Joyeuse, and other family members attend Joyeuse's burial service at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., March 29.

    Jacquelyn Martin / AP

    The family of Dr. Rene Joyeuse attend his burial service at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., March 29. In the wheelchair is Joyeuse' widow, Suzanne Joyeuse, with their son's Marc Joyeuse, and Remi Joyeuse, right.

    Jacquelyn Martin / AP

    The remains of Dr. Rene Joyeuse, of Saranac Lake, New York, a decorated Swiss-born WWII spy, during burial services at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., March 29.

    By Chris Carola / Associated Press 

    When Dr. Rene Joyeuse's request for burial at Arlington National Cemetery was rejected, the family of the decorated Swiss-born World War II spy launched a campaign to get the decision reversed. Months later, Joyeuse is getting his wish, thanks in part to the involvement of the nation's top covert operators, including CIA Director David Petraeus.

    Before resigning amid a sex scandal last November, Petraeus played a key role in convincing Pentagon officials that Joyeuse, a retired doctor from upstate New York, deserved to lie in rest among some of America's greatest military heroes, people familiar with the situation told The Associated Press.

    "It got attention at the highest levels, very high up. That's how important he (Joyeuse) was," said Charles Pinck, president of the OSS Society, whose membership includes a dwindling number of veterans of the Office of Strategic Services, the nation's World War II intelligence agency and forerunner of the CIA.  Continue reading.

     

  • Long-missing WWII medals awarded in Los Angeles

    View more videos at: http://nbclosangeles.com.

    By Robert Jablon, The Associated Press

    A Southern California woman who grew up knowing little of her father — a heroic casualty of World War II — is now the proud owner of his long-lost battle medals, including a Silver Star and Purple Heart.

    Hyla Merin's mother never spoke about the Army officer who died before she was born. The scraps of information she gathered from other relatives were hazy: 2nd Lt. Hyman Markel was a rabbi's son, brilliant at mathematics, the brave winner of battlefield honors who died sometime in 1945.

    Aside from wedding photos of Markel in uniform, Merin never glimpsed him.

    About four months ago, the manager of a West Hollywood apartment building where Merin's mother lived in the 1960s found a box containing papers and the Purple Heart while cleaning out some lockers in the laundry room, Merin said.

    The manager contacted Purple Hearts Reunited, a nonprofit organization that returns lost or stolen medals to vets or their families.

    A search led to Merin.

    On Sunday, she received the Purple Heart, along with a Silver Star she never knew her father had won and a half-dozen other medals.

    Mark J. Terrill / AP

    Army Capt. Zachariah L. Fike presents Hyla Merin with a plaque Sunday that contains medals presented posthumously to her father after they were recently discovered in an apartment where Merin's mother and aunts had once lived.

    Merin wiped away tears as the Silver Star was pinned to her lapel during a short ceremony attended by friends and family at her home in Westlake Village, a community straddling the Ventura and Los Angeles county lines. The other medals were presented on a plaque.

    "It just confirms what a great man he was," Merin said tearfully. "He gave up his life for our country and our freedom. I'll put it up in my house as a memorial to him and to those who served."

    Merin's mother, Celia, married Markel in 1941 when he already was in the military. They met at a Jewish temple in Buffalo, N.Y.

    Markel was killed in the last days of World War II in May 1945 in Italy's Po Valley while fighting German troops as an officer with an infantry unit, said Zachariah Fike, the Vermont Army National Guard captain who founded Purple Hearts Reunited.

    AP / Provided by Hyla Merin

    This undated image provided by Hyla Merin shows 2nd Lt. Hyman Markel with his bride, Celia Markel.

    "The accounts suggest that he was out on patrol and he got ambushed and he charged ahead and basically took out a machine gun position to save the rest of his guys," said Fike, whose organization has returned some two dozen medals. "For that, he paid the ultimate sacrifice."

    He was awarded the Purple Heart and Silver Star posthumously, but for some reason the family never was told about the Silver Star and it was never sent to them, Fike said.

    Merin's mother never talked in detail to her daughter about Markel.

    "It was a very difficult topic for her. When my father died, she was seven months pregnant with me," Merin said.

    Her mother briefly remarried when Merin was 10, but her stepfather died three years later, Merin said.

    Her mother moved into the apartment in 1960 and may have placed the Purple Heart in the locker then, Merin said. Her mother lived there until 1975 before moving away, and Merin's aunt lived there until 2005. Another aunt lived there until 2009.

    They never spoke about what was in the locker, and the family must have missed the box when they took away the aunts' possessions in 2005 and 2009, Merin said.


    Merin said that in addition to the Purple Heart, which Pike kept for framing, the box contained letters and other papers, and her father's Jewish prayer book.

    "I found it very hard to look at. A lot of them were condolence letters," she said.

    Merin's mother was told about the discovery of the Purple Heart but didn't live to see it — she died Feb. 1 at age 94.

    Associated Press writer Christopher Weber contributed to this story.

  • 'Madder than hell': WWII veteran's medals are stolen

    View more videos at: http://nbcsandiego.com.

    By Monica Garske, Tony Shin and Elena Gomez, NBCSanDiego.com

    San Diego County sheriff’s detectives are looking for the suspect or suspects responsible for stealing several World War II medals from a veteran's home in Vista, Calif.

    According to detectives, the war medals were stolen during a residential burglary, and they were the only item taken from the home.

    The medals have no real monetary value, detectives said, but they do hold great sentimental value to the owner, a World War II Marine veteran who earned them while fighting in the war.

    For more, visit NBCSanDiego.com

    The veteran – 88-year-old Clyde Kellogg – was wounded in combat and spent almost an entire year in the hospital recovering from his injuries.

    Kellogg told NBC 7 that his medals, including a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart, mean everything to him. They remind him of his days as a soldier – and the friends he lost along the way.


    Kellogg joined the Marines at age 17 and served in World War II.

    He said that in his heart, he shares his Bronze Star medal of valor with a fellow Marine who was right there with him when a Japanese tank rolled over their foxhole in Guadacanal.

    “My buddy was right there with me and I held him in my arms while he died. It ticked me off,” recalled Kellogg.

    He later received a Purple Heart. Kellogg said it took him a year to recover from his wounds sustained in combat, including a shot through the throat that left him with only half a vocal cord.

    For more than 60 years, Kellogg has cherished his military medals. Now, they’re gone and the former Marine is fired up about it.

    “I was ready to fight [when they were stolen]. I was madder than hell,” said Kellogg. “Anyone who would take those didn’t earn them. What the hell are they going to do with them?"

    Kellogg said the medals were taken straight from his wall. They were proudly displayed for years in a space right above his military dog tags.

    On Friday, a fellow veteran who heard about the theft of Kellogg’s war medals brought him a surprise at home: a new set of medals to replace his originals.

    Jack Harkins from the United Veterans Council visited Kellogg in Vista.

    Kellogg said he couldn’t express how thankful he was for Harkins’ kind gesture. He said the replacement medals will fill a void he has felt since his medals were stolen.

    “You don’t know how much I appreciate this,” Kellogg said. “I feel elated someone would step up and do something for somebody – replacing my medals.”

    Harkins said he read an article about Kellogg’s medals being stolen and felt he had to do something to help because, as a Marine, he knows what it means to earn medals of valor.

    “The honor that Americans have when their nation presents them with honor for their service is something that runs deep. That’s been true for all generations,” said Harkins.

    In addition to the replacement medals, Harkins gave Kellogg a personal Marine pin to wear for his service engraved with the words, “Once a Marine, Always a Marine.”

    “Jack, you don’t know what this means to me,” Kellogg told Harkins at his home.

    Kellogg said he will be keeping his new medals and pin at home, very much guarded.

    Meanwhile, investigators will continue to search for Kellogg’s original prized possessions.

    Detectives said both the burglary suspect(s) and Kellogg’s stolen medals are still outstanding. Officials are asking for the public’s help in identifying and locating the persons responsible for the burglary. Anyone with information is asked to contact sheriff’s detective Lisa Jenkins at (760) 940-4907 or the Crime Stoppers tip line at (888) 580-8477.

  • WWII veteran returns wedding photos of dead German soldier 68 years later

    View more videos at: http://nbcbayarea.com.

    By Cheryl Hurd, NBCBayArea.com

    Even though he is 92, Howard Hensleigh of Menlo Park, Calif., remembers 1944 like it was yesterday. That was the year the Army World War II veteran killed a German soldier during a gunbattle in southern France.


    "The sergeant that I'd chosen to fire the first shot fired, and of course they (the German soldiers) hit the dirt. And there's firing going back and forth all the time,"  Hensleigh said.

    Hensleigh, who was an intelligence officer and assistant platoon leader, says he knew the German soldiers were not going to give up without a fight. He says he gave them several chances to give up. But a man he later came to find out was named Georg Reick give him no other choice. Hensleigh shot and killed him during a firefight. Hensleigh said he felt it was something he had to do in order to save his men.

    "When you take prisoners you get all the information off of all of them," Hensleigh said. "I hate to admit it but they don’t end up with their watches rings and anything else."

    Also on NBCBayArea.com: Fallen state trooper gives the gift of sight

    In this case, Reick was stripped of personal artifacts, such as pictures of his wife and family and his wedding photo: It was common to confiscate the goods from the dead Germans at the time. Hensleigh took them, and put his enemy's belongings in his personal  scrap book.

    They stayed there for 68 years until a young French writer named Jean Loup came along. Loup was interested in interviewing WWII veterans who served their country in southern France for a documentary he was working on. While researching online, Loup found Hensleigh. Loup flew to the San Francisco Peninsula to meet Hensleigh, and during their meeting, learned of his story and started to connect the dots.

    Loup then contacted the company that developed pictures. But the company was no longer there.

    Also on NBCBayArea.com: San Francisco terrier's death sentence up in air

    He then sent them to the mayor of the small German town where the soldier lived.

    The mayor recognized the dead soldier and put Hensleigh in touch with the soldier’s grandson whose name is also Georg Reick.

    The grandson and Hensleigh now email each other back and forth. Hensleigh gave Reick's grandson information he's been longing for and Reick has pictures he thought he would never get.

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  • Crashed WWII fighter plane recovered from Lake Michigan

    View more videos at: http://nbcchicago.com.

    By NBC News staff

    The light of day shone on a World War II fighter plane Friday for the first time in almost 68 years, when crews recovered the crashed aircraft from the waters of Lake Michigan.


    On Dec. 28, 1944, a FM-2 "Wildcat" Fighter aircraft crashed and sank during a training mission in Waukegan Harbor, NBCChicago.com reported. Engine failure was blamed, and the plane was left in about 200 feet of water, according to NBCChicago.com.

    Friday's recovery, which had an audience of nearly 100, was the first milestone toward getting the plane restored and eventually in a museum, the Chicago Tribune reported. A 78-year-old pilot from Mettawa, Ill. paid for the recovery, according to the newspaper.

    "It’s a pretty inspiring thing," pilot Charles Greenhill told the Tribune. "You think you get used to it, but you don’t."

    The plane is expected to be transported to Greenhill's Kenosha, Wis., hangar and then to Pensacola, Fla., where it'll undergo a full restoration -- which could take at least five years -- at the National Museum of Naval Aviation, the Tribune reported. It's hoped that the plane will permanently reside in a proposed museum on the former Naval Air Station Glenview site in Illinois, according to the newspaper.

    Courtesy NBCChicago.com

    Crews remove a FM-2 "Wildcat" Fighter aircraft on Friday that crashed during a training mission on Dec. 28, 1944, in Waukegan Harbor.

    Related: WWII veteran returns wedding photos 68 years later

    The "Wildcat" aircraft was one of the planes used to train Navy pilots during World War II, and they'd practice flying from the naval air station and from aircraft carriers, the Daily Herald in suburban Chicago reported. During the war, over 17,000 pilots trained over Lake Michigan, according to Rockford, Ill. NBC affiliate WREX.

    "This thing would've been a piece of junk,” Greenhill told the Daily Herald. "Instead, it will become a piece of history that people will be able to see and appreciate."

    The recovery happened on a day of related significance: Friday was the 71st anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, which claimed thousands of lives and launched the United States into World War II, according to The Associated Press.

    Related: Pearl Harbor dead remembered on 71st anniversary
    Related: NBC's George Lewis blogs about remembering Pearl Harbor

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  • WWII vet, 92, kills intruder with single shot in Kentucky

    A 92-year-old World War II veteran describes how he shot and killed an intruder with single shot while defending his home in Verona, Ke. WLWT's Brian Hamrick reports.

    By James Eng, NBC News

    A 92-year-old World War II veteran says he wasn’t scared and was only protecting himself and his property when he shot to death an intruder who broke into his home.


    Earl Jones, of Verona, Ky., had already been the target of three separate break-ins in August, deputies said, according to WLWT-TV. So when the Boone County farmer heard a bang in his basement early Monday morning, Jones was ready, quickly grabbing his loaded .22-caliber rifle from his bedroom.

    When the intruder kicked open the door leading up from the basement, Jones fired a single shot.

    “He kicked the door and as soon as he got inside, it was all over,” Jones told WLWT-TV.

    “I was hoping another one would come up – I aimed right for his heart,” Jones, who served in the U.S. Army Air Forces from 1941 through 1946, told The Cincinnati Enquirer. 

    “Was I scared? Was I mad? Hell no,” Jones told the Enquirer. “It was simple. That man was going to take my life. He was hunting me. I was protecting myself.”

    Jones then called 911. When Boone County deputies arrived, they found the basement door ajar but the intruder’s body was gone.

    A short time later Kenton County Police responded to a call of a man who had been shot and found a deceased man and two others in a 2001 Chevrolet Impala.

    Watch US News crime videos on NBCNews.com

    The dead man was identified by the sheriff’s office as Lloyd “Adam” Maxwell, 24 of Richmond, Ky.

    The two people with him were brought back to Boone County and later admitted they were involved in the burglary, authorities said. Ryan Dalton, 22 and Donnie Inabnit, 20, both of Dry Ridge, Ky., were arrested and charged with second-degree burglary and tampering with physical evidence. Authorities said they removed Maxwell’s body from Jones’ home and drove away.

    Jones was not injured and faces no charges at this point, WLWT reported.

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  • After death, Pearl Harbor survivor returns to his ship

    By Audrey McAvoy, The Associated Press

     

    Maureen Monte / AP

    Pearl Harbor survivor Lee Soucy wanted to have his ashes interred on the USS Utah, from which he escaped on Dec. 7, 1941.

    HONOLULU -- Lee Soucy decided five years ago that when he died he wanted to join his shipmates killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor.

    Soucy lived to be 90, passing away just last year. On Tuesday, seven decades after dozens of fellow sailors were killed when the USS Utah sank on Dec. 7, 1941, a Navy diver will take a small urn containing his ashes and place it in a porthole of the ship.

    The ceremony is one of five memorials being held this week for servicemen who lived through the assault and want their remains placed in Pearl Harbor out of pride and affinity for those they left behind.

    "They want to return and be with the shipmates that they lost during the attack," said Jim Taylor, a retired sailor who coordinates the ceremonies.

    The memorials are happening the same week the country observes the 70th anniversary of the aerial bombing that killed 2,390 Americans and brought the United States into World War II. A larger ceremony to remember all those who perished will be held Wednesday just before 8 a.m. Hawaii time — the same moment the devastating attack began.

    Most of the 12 ships that sank or were beached that day were removed from the harbor, their metal hulls salvaged for scrap. Just the Utah and the USS Arizona still lie in the dark blue waters. Only survivors of those vessels may return in death to their ships.

    The cremated remains of Vernon Olsen, who served aboard the Arizona, will be interred on his ship during a sunset ceremony Wednesday. The ashes of three other survivors are being scattered in the harbor.

    Soucy, the youngest of seven children, joined the Navy out of high school so he wouldn't burden his parents. In 1941, he was a pharmacist mate, trained to care for the sick and wounded.

    Untitled Document

    He had just finished breakfast that Sunday morning when he saw planes dropping bombs on airplane hangars. He rushed to his battle station after feeling the Utah lurch, but soon heard the call to abandon ship as the vessel began sinking. He swam to shore, where he made a makeshift first aid center to help the wounded and dying. He worked straight through for two days.

    The Utah lost nearly 60 men on Dec. 7, and about 50 are still entombed in the battleship. Today, the rusting hull of the Utah sits on its side next to Ford Island, not far from where it sank 70 years ago.

    Marco Garcia / AP

    Navy Region Hawaii Honor Guard seaman Nick Marrero places an urn with the ashes of Pearl Harbor survivor Lee Soucy near his picture during Soucy's internment ceremony on Dec. 6.

    Soucy's daughter, Margaret, said her parents had initially planned to have their ashes interred together at their church in Plainview, Texas. But her father changed his mind after visiting Pearl Harbor for the 65th anniversary in 2006.

    "He announced that he wanted to be interred on the Utah. And my mother looked a little hurt and perplexed. And I said, 'Don't worry Daddy, I'll take that part of your ashes that was your mouth and I'll have those interred on the Utah. And you can then tell those that have preceded you, including those that were entombed, what's been going on in the world,'" Margaret Soucy recalled saying with a laugh.

    "'And the rest of your remains we will put with mother in the church gardens at St. Mark's.' And then my sister spoke up and said, 'Yes, then mother can finally rest in peace,'" she said.

    The family had longed kidded Soucy for being talkative —they called him "Mighty Mouth" — so Margaret Soucy said her father laughed and agreed. "He just thought that was hilarious," she said.

    "So that is what we are doing. We're taking only a portion of his ashes. It's going to be a small urn," she said.

    Soucy's three children, several grandchildren and great-grandchildren — 11 family members altogether — will be attending the sunset ceremony on Tuesday. His wife died earlier this year.

    Sunset Tuesday was 5:49 p.m. in Honolulu, with light winds and temperatures in the 70s, with a repeat set for Wednesday.

    An urn carrying the ashes of Vernon Olsen, who was among the 334 on the Arizona to survive the attack, will be interred in a gun turret on the Arizona on Wednesday. Most of the battleship's 1,177 sailors and Marines who died on Dec. 7 are still entombed on the ship.

    AP

    The ashes of Pearl Harbor survivor Vernon Olsen are scheduled to be interred on the USS Arizona.

    Five months after Pearl Harbor Olsen was on the USS Lexington aircraft carrier when it sank during the Battle of the Coral Sea.

    "I used to tell him he had nine lives. He was really lucky," said his widow, Jo Ann Olsen.

    He passed away in April at the age of 91 after a bout of pneumonia.

    Pearl Harbor interment and ash scattering ceremonies began in the late 1980s, and started growing in number as more survivors heard about them.

    Taylor has helped 265 survivors return to Pearl Harbor. The vast majority have had their ashes scattered. He's arranged for the remains of about 20 Arizona survivors to be placed in the Arizona and about a dozen to be put in the Utah.

    "These guys are heroes, OK. Fact is, in my opinion, anybody that's ever served in the military and wore the uniform are heroes. That's why you and I can breathe today in a free country. So I just appreciate what they did," he said.

    The nation marks Dec. 7, 1941
    Here are some of the ways the United States is commemorating the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

    Hawaii: The National Park Service and Navy Region Hawaii will host the 70th Anniversary Pearl Harbor Day Commemoration on the back lawn of the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center. Pearl Harbor survivors and World War II veterans will be there for the annual observance.

    Washington: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will lay a wreath at the Navy Memorial.

    New Orleans: A new exhibit opens Wednesday at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, telling the story of the attacks through personal items of its survivors. One example from  "Infamy: December 1941": A wristwatch -- stopped at 8:04 a.m. -- belonging to a sailor who plunged into the water from the burning USS Oklahoma.