WWII airman's bracelet returned to family

And it involves a chain of strangers who were determined to see that Rose's family received the memento.

Bud Rose and his son (and uncle's namesake) were presented with the special fragment at a recent ceremony at Santa Fe National Cemetery, on the 65th anniversary of Sgt. Rose's death in France.

Sgt. Paul Rose was 22 and stationed in France on Oct. 8, 1944.

A mechanic and a gunner, he was with the crew of a B-26 Marauder on their way back from a mission in Germany when tragedy struck. They were flying over a ceremony honoring a crew that had been shot down earlier that year and the bomber Sgt. Rose was aboard collided with another American bomber. All the members of both crews died.

Younger brother Bud Rose was 20 at the time and stationed in the South Pacific. The news of his only brother's death devastated him.

"He received a letter from his mom notifying him what had happened and he got all shook up," Paul Rose said of his father, Bud.

Cut to 1993.

A French farmer named Andre Noury found a small rectangular piece of metal in a field. It was engraved with the name "Paul E. Rose" and a service number. Noury was determined to find the man's family but was reluctant to turn the bracelet over to officials.

So he simply held onto it.

"He didn't know what to do," Paul Rose said. "He was afraid to go to the bureaucrats, thinking it would go in some warehouse."

Flash forward another 15 years.

Noury met Christian Dieppedalle earlier this year in France. Dieppedalle was already well-versed in World War II research, having helped organize a recent memorial ceremony for the crew of another fallen American bomber. He agreed to help.

Paul Rose said the French still hold tremendous respect for the American servicemen who helped liberate them from the Germans.

"I don't know how it's going to be in future generations, but right now, there are plenty of people in France that will never forget," Paul said.

Dieppedalle posted a message on B26.com, a Web site "dedicated to Martin B-26 Marauder Men" who fought in World War II.

He sought help on the site's guest book, and received plenty of it.

Don Enlow Jr. is one of several people who took up the cause. Enlow's father was a member of the same squadron as Sgt. Rose.

Enlow, who lives in Louisiana, started looking at genealogy Web sites and searching for Roses in the Dallas phone book. Sgt. Rose was believed to have been from Dallas.

A series of dead ends led him to call Dallas-area media outlets. Dallas Morning News reporter Michael E. Young wrote a story about the bracelet mystery on July 24, and the tips started rolling in.

More people offered to help, including a man who buys and sells mineral leases for an oil company and who had experience helping morgues find the families of unclaimed bodies. Enlow learned that Sgt. Rose might have a brother named Horace. He found a Horace Rose in Florida but his phone number had been disconnected.

Horace "Bud" Rose had moved to Santa Fe to live with his son Paul.

Enlow soon obtained a phone number for Paul Rose and gave him a call.

"I thought it was some kind of scam in the beginning," Paul said. "Don said, 'Look, this is for real,' because he probably sensed my skepticism. He reiterated the whole tale, and it was too amazing. Then I said, 'Guess what? My dad is sitting right next to me.'"

Bud said as surprising as the phone call was, it was even more miraculous to hear the story of how hard a group of strangers had worked to find Sgt. Rose's family.

"It's almost unbelievable this sequence of things that happened to create a ceremony to honor (Sgt. Rose)," he said. "I think it's wonderful."

Enlow, in a phone interview, said he regretted not being able to attend the event but is nonetheless thrilled that the bracelet was now in the hands of the Rose family.

"I've never been involved in anything like this before," Enlow said. "I'll never forget it."

The Oct. 8 ceremony included a salute by the honor guard from VFW Post 2951 and speeches by Paul Rose and Nathalie Bonnard-Grenet, who was asked by the French consulate to take part in the ceremony.

Bonnard-Grenet read a few letters, including one from Dieppedalle expressing his happiness that the Roses now have the bracelet.

It read: "Our duty is to maintain in our hearts the memory of the veterans. As long as we talk of them, they will never disappear."

Paul Rose said he thinks his uncle knew he was being honored.

"There's a saying that goes 'Old airmen never die. They go onto another plane,'" Paul said during the ceremony. "I feel my uncle is still in the clouds, and maybe he's with us now."