Talk about long-lost treasure.
John Dodds, a retired member of the Air Force reserve, and his daughter were shopping around a Goodwill thrift store in Washington, D.C. when his daughter spotted something Dodds was pretty familiar with: a WWII bomber jacket.
Dodds purchased the jacket, labeled “Robert G. Arand” for $17, and 24 hours later was on the phone with the jacket’s owner, first reported by Stars and Stripes.
Arand, a former B-24 pilot who flew more than 40 missions in the South Pacific, hadn’t seen the jacket for more than 60 years. He believes his wife donated the jacket to a charity in Cincinnati, where he now lives, sometime in 1950.
Even though Dodds originally hoped to keep the jacket, he’s sending the 90-year-old veteran his personal piece of history back.
To learn more about this story and to see photos of the jacket, check out the original Stars and Stripes report.
