Dog tag a reminder of dad

Beachcombers dig up ID lost by Adrian GI 70 years ago

Mary Hammond, left, and Kathy Rollison, right, on March 25, 2012. The sisters received the dog tags of their father WWII solider John W. Sackett after nearly 70 years in the ground, the dog tags were sent to them from a woman in Australia.

The Blade/Amy E. Voigt
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A picture of WWII solider John W. Sackett with his dogtags.

World War II veteran John W. Sackett, who grew up in Adrian, came home from the war in 1945 and now his three daughters have something he left behind 9,000 miles away and nearly 70 years ago.

"It was a total shock," said Mary Hammond after a cousin in Florida told her that someone on the other side of the globe had found Mr. Sackett's dog tag, tracked down the Sackett family, and wanted to send them the item.

The military artifact — a little tarnished from so many decades buried in the sand in Australia but otherwise in great shape — was eventually sent to Ms. Hammond, who says it's now a family treasure and tearful reminder of their father, who died in 1990.

"It was my cousin Sue Sackett down in Florida who belongs to a Web site, the Sackett family history, and a man on there, got an email from this woman in Australia wondering how she could track down the family of a John W. Sackett," she said.

Ms. Hammond, 61, and her two sisters — Pam Thacker, who lives in Sylvania, and Kathy Rollison, who lives in West Toledo — were all elated to get their father's dog tag. A fourth daughter of Mr. Sackett, Sharon Stebbins, died last year.

Mary Hammond, left, and Kathy Rollison, right, on March 25, 2012. The sisters received the dog tags of their father WWII solider John W. Sackett after nearly 70 years in the ground, the dog tags were sent to them from a woman in Australia.

Kelly Grace, who lives in Brisbane in the Australian state of Queensland, told The Blade by email how she, her daughter, and father-in-law found the dog tag with a metal detector.

"My daughter Olivia has a keen interest in geology and all things outdoors," Ms. Grace said. "Her grandfather is the same.

"He has been a keen metal detector for decades but has run out of people to follow him around until Olivia heard about his plans to go to an old U.S. Army camp near Brisbane."

The trio set out early one January morning and met at the monument to the soldiers who lived at Camp Cable.

"The camp itself has gone through many changes since it was disbanded in 1943," she wrote. "We began by finding both American and Australian coins dated pre-1943, uniform buttons, camp cutlery, bullet shells, and bits of tin. … One of the numerous times the detector beeped, we unearthed the dog tag of John W. Sackett, once washed, in almost pristine condition."

Ms. Grace had a lead on Ms. Sackett's family in hours after an Internet search.

"The operator of the family tree Web site put Mary and I in touch through a relation of hers, Sue Sackett," she said. "We were then able to confirm that we had found the correct family and arrange to send the dog tag home."

The two families have kept in touch the past two months. Ms. Hammond sent Ms. Grace copies of newspaper articles written by her father during the war for the newspaper in Adrian, the Adrian Daily Telegram, along with photos of him.

Mr. Sackett was an Army infantryman, honorably discharged with the rank of sergeant.

"He fought in New Guinea and the Philippines and one of the articles he wrote was about what they went through to get to the Japanese off an island," Ms. Hammond said. "When you read this, it just makes my heart break for what these men go through in war."

Mr. Sackett caught malaria and was in a U.S. Army camp hospital in Australia. It was then, Ms. Hammond and Ms. Rollison believe, that he lost the dog tag.

"I am waiting until my sister Pam gets home because I want her to see it and touch it, and then I am going to give it to my oldest son, Chris, because he is the only one old enough to have had a relationship with my father," Ms. Hammond said.

Ms. Rollison said her father would have had eight grandchildren but met only six before his death.

He was a floor-covering contractor working for a family business, Sackett Family Floor Covering in Adrian. Mr. Sackett opened a store in Toledo called Toledo Floor Covering, which he operated until he retired.

Like many World War II veterans, Mr. Sackett would not talk about the war, his daughters said.

Contact Ignazio Messina at: imessina@theblade.com or 419-724-6171.