A man has managed to track down the exact World War II uniform his grandfather was wounded in.
Mark Ryan Holmes was just three months old when his grandpa died of lung cancer at the age of 59.
He has one photograph of them together and has “always felt a connection to him”.
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Intrigued about his grandpa’s time in Roi Namur, part of the Marshall Islands that were seized by the Japanese during WWII, Mark often Googled his relative’s name – “William Watson Holmes”.
And then one day, he got a hit.
“One night, I was laying in bed looking at Google Earth and thought, ‘I haven’t searched for my grandpa in a while, I should do that,’” Mark, now 40, told What’s The Jam.
“The search immediately resulted in images of a shirt labelled W W Holmes and a very interesting story about his life and what he did in the war.
“I was floored.
“My immediate thought was that surely my dad, aunt, and uncles knew about this.
“But they had no idea and immediately had lots of questions.”
Mark, from Houston, Texas, messaged the owner of the shirt and, to his surprise, got a response the next day.
He said: “The guy, Austin Wideman, ended up being an incredible person.
“He lives in St. Louis, Missouri, and his passion is collecting UNIS-marked items from the South Pacific.
“The UNIS is the number and symbol on the items that show what company and division the soldier carrying it was in.
“He has successfully matched items with families in the past and said he tried to find a family of William to no avail.
“Turns out this time it was me who found him.
“It felt incredible.“
Mark booked a flight and flew up to see Austin and his grandad’s shirt.
Worn and covered in marks, the back of the uniform has holes in it from a land mine blast on the island of Tinian.
Mark’s grandad William ‘Bill’ Holmes had to have shrapnel removed from his back.
His injury report stated “blast, concussion, land mine atmospheric, shell shocked”.
Bill was sent to a Naval Hospital in Lee Hall, Virginia, where his shirt was likely tossed into a pile of personal items.
It stayed in the same state for nearly 80 years before Austin came across it on an auction site and added it to his collection.
Mark said: “It just so happens that my brother lives in St. Louis.
“My brother was on vacation in Europe with his wife and my parents were at his house watching my nephews.
“I coordinated the trip so my dad would be there so he could see the shirt too.
“We had Austin over to my brother’s house to show us the shirt, and my parents cooked us all a big dinner.
“It was a great time.”
In a kind gesture to Mark and his family, Austin made a replica of the T-shirt that’s wearable.
Mark, a firefighter and paramedic, said: “It has all the same markings on it.
“My dad and uncles have given Austin some other items of my grandpa’s to accompany the shirt on his display.
“This includes his ribbons, military ID and some letters.
“A lot of people have asked why he didn’t give us the shirt.
“For one, I didn’t ask for it.
“I am hugely grateful and honoured for what he is doing to tell my grandpa’s story.
“And the many others he is doing the same thing for.
“If we had the shirt, it would be hidden away in our home for no one else to know about.”
Despite only meeting him as a newborn, Mark’s connection to his grandad has always been there.
He said: “Me, my dad, and my sons still go camping and hunting on the ranch my grandparents owned when they were alive.
“That has always been a big part of the connection.
“But to wear that shirt, thinking what he must have been feeling being wounded, evacuated, the chaos of battle all around him… is incredible.”
Praising Austin, Mark added: “Austin is preserving history and sharing it with others.”
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