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From Detroit to Pawtucket, and back again: The journey of a WWII footlocker – Herb Weiss
by Herb Weiss, contributing writer on aging issues
“There and Back Again.” originating from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, is an expression that means a complete round trip to a place, including the journey back to where you started.
The journey of my late-father’s military olive-green footlocker began last June, after I was notified by a Detroit couple, Michael Shannon and his girlfriend Cetaura Bell, that it had been found cast away on a sidewalk for anyone to claim. The long-lost trunk that I never knew existed, had been stored in a vacant garage for over 60 years, ultimately ended up on my front steps, delivered almost 700 miles by FEDEX from Detroit to Pawtucket.
Shannon, a 55-year-old retiree of Detroit’s wastewater facility, and Bell, a retired teacher, didn’t have to seek me out to return the footlocker to the family. They could have just kept the vintage military footlocker for use as a coffee table, or could have sold it at a flea market or on eBay.
But they offered to give me my father’s footlocker, as a gift, asking me for nothing in exchange. Shannon told me that he was just glad it could end up with the family of its rightful owner instead of being dumped in a landfill or another stranger’s home.
After the footlocker arrived, I closely examined a faded mailing label on its top. By enlarging the label, filled out by my father, Lt. Frank M. Weiss, with Photoshop, my graphic designer was able to identify his Detroit mailing address, 16841 Wildemere Avenue, (which matched the address in his military records) on the label. It was like winning a million-dollar lottery. Now I was convinced that this trunk was owned by my father.
The footlocker, meantime, sat in my basement. Although it was empty when it arrived, I placed a folded American flag, given to my family at my father’s funeral, his military memorabilia, scrapbook of faded photos of his comrades in arms and assigned military bases from his long-ago days during WW II, and military documents for safe keeping.
What a story to share?
In a crazy world where people don’t care about strangers, but an act of kindness returned a WWII veteran’s lost military footlocker to a family member. My article, published here, and in the Blackstone Valley Call & Times, detailing Shannon and Bell’s kindness, was picked up by the Cranston Herald, Warwick Beacon, Senior Digest, and then later by Columnist Neal Rubin, of the Detroit Free Press, a Gannet publication, in both their digital and print editions. Then other Gannet papers, including the Providence Journal, the Cincinnati paper and the Indy Star, reprinted Rubin’s column. And, Military Reporter, Corey Dickstein, with Stars & Stripes – the US military’s independent news source with a circulation of over 1 million readers, reported on this story. Perhaps the biggest connection, though, was made Military Reporter, Corey Dickstein, with Stars & Stripes – the US military’s independent news source with a circulation of over 1 million readers, reported on this story.
There and Back Again
After a talk at the Hope Historical Society (HHS) about my father’s footlocker’s return to Rhode Island from a street curb in Detroit (a most appropriate topic for a monthly meeting scheduled around Veterans Day), Fred Faria, a retired professor at Johnson & Wales and one of HHS’s founders, asked me how this footlocker would be protected after my passing away. Being over age 70, this question induced me to act.
So, I reached out to the Washington, DC-based Smithsonian Institution’s’ National Museum of American History, offering to donate this military heirloom with a unique background story.
“The footlocker indeed has a wonderful story but at present time this item is outside the scope of our current collecting plan. Might I recommend your state history museum or the National WW II Museum [in New Orleans] as worthy homes for this piece?” said Frank A. Blazich, Jr., PhD., Curator, Military History, Division of Military and Society, responding to my offer.
Following up Blazich’s referral, this is a response off the New Orleans-based Museum. “We would be happy to have the contents of the footlocker for our collection; however, due to the number of footlockers that we already have and the size of these items, we are not able to accept the footlocker itself,” said Assistant Curator Brandon Daake, Assistant Curator.
Photos: Michigan’s Military Heritage Museum. Lt. Frank M. Weiss’s military footlocker now archived at Michigan’s Military Heritage Museum with museum volunteers Dominick Myers and David Heaven.
“If you are interested in keeping the footlocker and its contents together to tell one story, I would suggest reaching out to the Michigan’s Military Heritage Museum (MMHM), or another museum in the Detroit area,” suggested Daake, recognizing the fact that my father was a Detroit WW II veteran.
And that I did…
Small military museum takes possession of military footlocker
After several phone calls, a conversation with Scott Gerych, MMHM’s Chairman, the deal was quickly sealed. My father’s military footlocker, with its Detroit, Michigan ties, would return to Michigan to become a unique addition to their growing collection of military artifacts.
In a message left on my Apple iPhone, Gerych, a 25-year veteran who served in the U.S. Army and a noted author, said: I am just dropping a line to say how neat it was to receive your father’s trunk with items from his service in WWII. What a joy! To have it go from Detroit to Rhode Island and now back to Michigan is certainly a great story to tell and to ultimately have it reunited with the items your dad saved from his wartime service is just awesome!”
“We are proud to have received it and will be getting it, all cataloged so we can eventually work it into an exhibit here at the MMHM. We love to see these stories saved and get them out on the public eye for all who are interested to see. Once again, thank you for thinking of us here at the museum,” said Gerych.
From its first home, at the Coe House Museum in Grass Lake, MMHM set up a one-room display showcasing uniforms and original artifacts of veterans highlighting their military service.
With a growing reputation and growing number of supporters and donations of historical military items, MMHM found a larger home, a 3,300-sf building in Grass Lake. After its five-year lease ran out, the small military museum found new location near the site of Camp Blair, a former 11-acre Civil War Union camp in Jackson. The military camp was an assembly point for new recruits and a discharging station for soldiers after the war’s end.
The collection of military artifacts grew and in 2021, the 3,600-former store-front in Jackson, Michigan, MMMH, opened its doors (now open half days, four days a week or by appointment.). This permanent location would allow MMHM to showcase thousands of military artifacts and large military vehicles, including three military jeeps, a Spanish-American War ambulance wagon, a WWI Model T ambulance, a replica of a M3 Lee tank and even four cannons. Specifically: a 1831 6lb cannon from the Mexican War and then used by the Confederates in the Civil War; a WWII German Pak 40, a standard antitank gun; and a WWI US M1905 gun.
Getting MMHM Off the Ground
The idea of starting a Michigan military museum started off with questions posed to a small group of friends who later helped to establish the MMHM. That is, “what happens to all these individual collections when we are gone?” Most of the original group were collectors of some type of militaria and all were interested in seeing the stories preserved.
That question was asked in 2013 and their idea would be answered by filing articles of incorporation with the state and later establishing a 501 C 3 nonprofit corporation in 2016.
As the group grew, meetings were held, partnerships created with the local historic society. After Liam Collins, who was knowledgeable about Michigan history and archaeology and an original member of the group passed away, the group not only preserved the memory of Liam by sharing the stories of the state’s veterans.
According to the nonprofit military museum, its mission is to tell the stories of “Great Lake State” military veterans through interpretive displays of artifacts, pictures, and written and oral histories. “Our state has currently two aviation museums and a museum dedicated to Medal of Honor Recipients and Astronauts,” says Gerych but nothing for the average service member who sacrificed and endured so much for our freedoms. We will be that institution,” he says.
The museum served as the headquarters for Michigan’s World War I Centennial. During 2019 and 2020, the museum participated in the 75th Anniversary of the end of WW II.
The nonprofit’s Board members, all extremely interested in Michigan’s military history brings different skills to the table, says Gerych, noting that one has a master’s degree in history and museum studies, another is an archivist who has decades of experience, as well as a Distinguished Fellow in the Company of Military Historians. “No one is paid,” he adds, saying that all are actively involved because of their love for history.
Gerych estimates that 5,000 to 8,000 visitors come to see the museums exhibits and learn about the personal history of everyday veterans. “Our records indicate that these visitors come from more than 30 countries and all 50 states,” he says.
From Detroit to Pawtucket and back again. Now, my family’s military heirloom has truly come home to become part of the MMHM’s growing military artifact collection.
Watch a JTV television commercial advertising MMHM. Go to:
https://www.facebook.com/mimilitaryheritagemuseum/videos/1079607069959492
For more information about the MMHM, 311 N. Wisner , Jackson, MI, 49202, call (517) 926-6696. Or email [email protected].
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To read more articles by Herb Weiss, go to: https://rinewstoday.com/herb-weiss/
Herb Weiss, LRI -12, is a Pawtucket-based writer who has covered aging, health care and medical issues for over 43 years. To purchase his books, Taking Charge: Collected Stories on Aging Boldly and a sequel, compiling weekly published articles, go to herbweiss.com.
