Found, one flag, far from home

There’s no telling how long the small brown cardboard box sat in the weeds before Darbie Henry of Redding found it last month.  But Darbie, who spotted the box during a walk with her dog, figured it couldn’t have been there too long or it would have been soaked by recent rains.

Actually, Darbie’s border collie, Sophie, is the one who originally sniffed out the box. Darbie approached the box and flipped it lightly with her foot to see what was inside.  

Its contents surprised her, especially given the fairly remote location, in a wooded field between Shasta Lake and Mountain Gate. The box was near the railroad tracks, but not so close that someone could have tossed it from the train.

Inside the box was a brand-new, unblemished tri-folded flag, similar to the kind placed on veterans’ caskets. 

The pencil-written message on the box flap compelled Darbie to pick up the box, take it home and place found ads in the newspaper and on Craig’s List. The message is also what compelled her to e-mail me for help. It said: “Bobs flag – died 1-12-05 – he was in the Navy, WWII.” 

Darbie and I met for coffee and she handed me the box. I read the message on the lid and felt a lump in my throat. 

“See what I mean?” Darbie asked. “It affected me the same way.”

We talked a while about the flag, and we shared guesses about how it came to land in such a strange place. 

Maybe someone was moving and accidentally lost it. Maybe someone broke into someone’s house and stole it, not knowing what it was, and just tossed it into the weeds. Maybe it belonged to a homeless person who’d set up camp out there.

Whatever the reason, Darbie wanted very much to reunite the flag with its family. We talked about that, and learned that we each had sons who’d served in the Marine Corps.  We decided that’s why we both got choked up when we read the message.

“Somebody held onto this flag after Grandpa Bob – or whoever he was – died,” Darbie said. “If it was mine and it disappeared, It’d be something I’d want back.”

None of Darbie’s ads were fruitful. She handed the flag off to me to see if I could find its rightful owner.

I tried some computer searches for Roberts and Bobs who’d died Jan. 12, 2005, but it was too large a field to narrow down without a last name or even a city.

I went to the front desk of the Northern California Veterans Cemetery in Igo and showed the flag to Rob Burroughs, who works there. He confirmed the flag is precisely the kind presented to the family of every deceased veteran. He also said that without a last name, or any other information, it would be almost impossible to learn anything more definitive about the flag’s owner.

So here we are. I know this is a long shot, but you never know. Maybe you knew a World War II veteran named Bob who died Jan. 12, 2005. Maybe you know his family, and could return his flag to them. 

It could happen.