The story of a small bracelet that crossed the Atlantic Ocean to end a cycle that started 80 years ago. According to the Houston Chronicle, on Tuesday (11th) in Houston, Joanne Sheehan emotionally received the belongings of her father, John Joseph Sheehan, an American sailor who fought in Normandy during World War II.
- Nov. 11, Wagons and even the myth of “Spoons in Boots”: 107 years ago, Germany surrendered, ending World War I.
At the handover, which took place at the French residence in Houston, Frank Marchetti, the French consul in Texas, handed over the pieces inscribed with the veterans’ names and personal messages. Jaune couldn’t hold back his tears. “This is going to be a very special Veterans Day,” he said, holding up a bracelet that had been missing for 80 years. “I wear it because it makes me feel closer to my father.”
The bracelet was engraved with Sheehan’s name, service number, blood type and the inscription “His wife Helen 1945”. The item was discovered in Le Havre, France, in 1946 by local resident Henrietta Blanc, who kept it in storage for decades after unsuccessful attempts to find its owner, the French Consulate General in Houston said in a statement.
Blanc’s death earlier this year prompted his daughters Yvette Palfrey and Marie-Claude Chogela to renew their search for the veteran’s family. In August, they contacted Colonel Thibault Thomas, the attaché at the French embassy in Washington, D.C., and the final chapter of the story began.
Brazil during World War II
Collection photo showing Brazil’s participation in the war in Europe
As a result of their investigation, the group headed to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. With the help of military history curator Frank Blazic, they tracked down Joan Sheehan, the daughter of John Joseph’s second marriage.
“We are not a lost-and-found department,” retired Gen. Jean-Michel Thomas said at a recent ceremony in Le Havre. “This bracelet symbolizes the enduring friendship between France and the United States and the sacrifices of those who fought for our freedom.”
According to Navy records, John Joseph Sheehan was born in New Jersey in 1923 and married Helen Sheehan in November 1944. The veteran died in New Orleans in 1995.
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