Military mystery solved: Roy man returns lost World War II veteran's medals to his family

Posted: Jun 24, 2019 / 10:23 PM MDT

Updated: Jun 24, 2019 / 10:41 PM MDT

ROY (ABC4 News) – Hundreds of packages are mailed every day at the Roy Post Office but few of them as significant as one that went out Monday. The flag and medals of World War II veteran Thomas Douglas Walker are finally heading home.

We first met Jim Thorpe on Memorial Day when he showed us the shadowbox containing the casket flag and U.S. Army medals that a friend found left in a vacant house a year ago. Being a World War II buff and the grandson of World War II veterans himself, Jim knew he needed to find the family of the mystery soldier in the photo and return the military mementos.

“It’s just the right thing to do,” Thorpe told ABC4 News.

After the story was posted on ABC4.com several people reached out to Jim…including Bonnie Walker Marshall of Ukiah, California who had the same picture of her Uncle Doug who served in the Army in the Pacific.

“During whatever battle he was in he lost one of his eyes so that’s how he got the Purple Heart,” Marshall said during a phone conversation. “And I guess it was a pretty severe battle which also got him the Bronze Star.”

Bonnie says Doug never had children and thinks one of his stepkids brought the items to Utah after his death 12 years ago.

“It was a sad thing to know that all of his memories and his military career was just stuffed in a closet someplace,” Marshall said.

Monday afternoon, Jim mailed the keepsakes to Doug Walker’s only surviving sibling, his younger brother Dale Walker who lives in Ukiah, California.

“I think he’ll be happy to know he’s going back to his family,” Thorpe said.
Marshall called the discovery and return of the items “a miracle”.

“I think he (Doug) would be proud that the family is all excited about it,” she said. “He’d be very proud of that and happy that it was found.”Mr. Walker’s flag and medals should arrive at his younger brother’s house by the end of the week.