Posted on 11/11/2009 5:10:57 AM PST by malkee
Thirty years ago, a young Frenchman walking in Normandy came across an American soldier's rusted dog tag among the rocks at Nacqueville, west of the port of Cherbourg.
The name read: "Addison W. Arthurs."
Etienne Desquesnes, now 46, wanted to return it to the owner or his family. But who was Addison Arthurs?
Mr. Desquesnes wrote to the U.S. embassy in Paris but never got an answer.
He finally has one now, and just in time for Veterans Day, thanks to some Internet sleuthing by his friend, Bertrand Goucovitch, 49, an amateur D-Day historian, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
After a recent flurry of Googling, e-mailing and phone calls, the owner of that tag has come into sharp relief: Addison Winfield Arthurs of Shadyside, a Pittsburgh blue-blood, decorated lieutenant colonel in charge of 400,000 German prisoners at Normandy and founder of the former Arthurs Lestrange & Short investment firm in Gateway Center.
Mr. Arthurs died of a heart attack in 1984 while skiing at Hidden Valley. He was 78 and left behind no children.
But his closest relative, second cousin Addison Armstrong, 46, of Stamford, Conn., and Addison Arthurs' second wife, Nancy McDonald, 74, of Oakland, were pleased to hear about the relic from 65 years ago. The Frenchmen will probably mail it to Mr. Armstrong, an energy broker who knew Mr. Arthurs as "Uncle Ad" as a teenager in Pittsburgh.
"I was shocked," he said of the discovery. "It really brought back a lot of great memories. He was very much a second father."
Read more: http://post-gazette.com/pg/09315/1012459-84.stm#ixzz0WYXTFvSr
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
Interesting.
I recently showed my father a book about the 132nd field artillery (in which he served) and he ran across the name of his foxhole buddy (who had been killed a month after my father was captured).
Sixty years later, when my father saw the name of his buddy, he started to cry. It was a lifetime ago; yet, for my father, it was as if it was yesterday. The bond of brothers in arms is unbreakable.
Thank you for posting this.
Did enjoy...thank you.
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