When the Past Finds You
Whether you serve one enlistment in the military or made it a career, moving from one place to another is stressful for many reasons. You know without a doubt you are going to lose things with each move. Some lost things have great and important and sentimental meaning, others not so much. Perhaps the most important among these, however, are the letters and documents that chronical your military career.
I was working on our Help Desk recently when I received a request from Ian Price. He wanted help in locating a Marine named Erik C. Woods who was stationed at Camp LeJeune in 1959. He said he knew of existing letters and documents belonging to Woods and wanted to help return them to Woods or his family.
I checked on our Marines website and found we had a member with that name and he was from the right time frame. Fortunately, he had his current contact information posted. I dialed his number and left a message for him to contact me.
Later that evening, Woods called me back. I introduced myself and explained to him that I was in communication with someone who knew of some military letters and documents belonging to a PFC Erik Woods who had been stationed at Camp Lejeune in 1958. Woods confirmed that he was a PFC and Cpl stationed there at that time.
As we continued the conversation, he also told me he had been accepted for the United States Naval Academy in 1960. Following graduations in 1964, he became an aviator and served one tour in Vietnam. He left the Marine Corps as a Captain.
I called Ian Price back and requested he email me photos of the documents and letters so I could forward them to Woods to verify. I forwarded the photos to Woods who confirmed they were indeed his documents and letters. Like me, he was surprised that these long-forgotten letters and documents from 50 some years ago still existed.
During the process of getting the letters and documents to Woods, I learned Ian Price was a collector of military items and had found the documents and letters on eBay. He informed me that the person who had the documents also had several handwritten letters addressed to Erik Woods dated 1960-1964 during his time at the Naval Academy and was going to post them for Auction on eBay.
Both Ian Prince and I were determined that we were going to win this auction and return them to Erik Woods.
It turned out we did get the over 100 documents and letters and returned them to their rightful owner - Erik Woods.
Among the letters were those addressed to PFC and Cpl Woods while he was stationed at Camp Lejeune in 1958. A larger number of letters were also sent while he was a Midshipman at the United States Naval Academy from 1960-1964.
When asked how the letters and documents were lost for 57 years, Woods said, 'I saved all my letters in a box. But when I graduated from the Academy in 1964 and was commissioned a Marine Officer, I couldn't find the box."
I attempted to contact the seller to maybe find out how the letters found their way to Irvine California all these years later but to no avail; the seller has yet returned any of my messages.
Like Woods, Ian and I wondered how they found their way to eBay. 'It is a mystery to be sure," said Woods. But 'Together We Served' discovered them, purchased them, and returned them to me. Everyone involved located me through 'Together We Served' and I am enjoying rereading them 50 plus years later."