The USS Oklahoma Project has been analyzing and identifying the sailors and marines ever since. Share 'The Journey Back: A VR Experience at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center' The exhibition is a global game-changer, revolutionizing the field of Holocaust memory through innovative technology and transportive storytelling. In 2015, they began exhuming the remains of the “unknowns”. “As of today, we have accounted for 338 of the 392 who were buried as “unknowns” at Punchbowl cemetery after WWII,” explained SFC Sean Everette with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. We had hoped for it when all of our parents were still around to enjoy it, but we were grateful it was us,” said Wallace. His body was not recovered at the time.Īfter a lifetime of waiting, the World War II sailor went from the “unknowns” to finally being accounted for. The Ackley native died when his ship was torpedoed by Japanese aircraft and sank. She grew up hearing the story of 20-year-old U.S. Her uncle was assigned to the USS Oklahoma. On May 10, German forces swept through Belgium and the.
“I was getting old enough, and it had been long enough ago, I thought it would never happen in my lifetime,” said Martha Wallace. World War II in the West (1940-41) On April 9, 1940, Germany simultaneously invaded Norway and occupied Denmark, and the war began in earnest. However, the coronavirus would delay the military funeral for yet another year. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.ĪCKLEY, Iowa– Nearly eight decades after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the remains of an Iowa sailor killed in action were finally identified. "I think grandpa has made his presence known this last couple weeks, saying, I love you all, I miss you, I'm here," Rachael said.This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. That's a great love story," said Raphael's granddaughter Rachael Schones-Dunlap.Ī love that lives on in words written and carved.Īnd a family that feels a little closer to the father and grandfather they loved. A British woman trying to escape Hungary with her freedom fighter lover and a group of Westerners, as the Soviet Union moves to crush the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, finds herself the obsession of an enigmatic Communist officer. "He put her name on that canteen and then came home to marry her. With Deborah Kerr, Yul Brynner, Jason Robards, Robert Morley. She was just his girlfriend then, but already in his heart. Raphael passed in 2015, his wife Ragine in 2017.īut their love endures in many ways, like the dozens of love letters Raphael wrote to Ragine while he was overseas.Īnd of course, Ragine is on the canteen. "It reminds us of old times again, when he was here," said his son Ray Schones. But it's back home now, and with it, a lot of emotions. Louis, and their dad never even told them it existed. The family said they have no idea how the canteen ended up in St. Raphael served in World War II and etched the names of his many stops on his canteen. There was a long process of demobilisation for Commonwealth forces too. But many would also see further service in new conflicts in Palestine, Indonesia and elsewhere. His granddaughter Rachael made the 600-mile drive to St. Around 4.2 million British servicemen and women were demobilied between June 1945 and December 1946. Louis by a man walking on a sandbar by the Mississippi River.Īmong the words etched into it, "Canute, Okla" and "Raphael Schones."Įnough of a lead for the man to track down the rightful owners, which are Raphael's family in Canute.
A WWII Canteen's Long Journey Home To OklahomaĪ canteen was discovered last month in St.