For 35 years, Ryan Andrews’ grandmother ran an antique shop in Chesapeake, Virginia. At some point, she bought a box of photos, dog tags, military pins, and medals belonging to a Vietnam veteran. Ryan thinks she probably paid about five dollars for it.
But recently, Ryan decided to find who the memorabilia belonged to…so he could return it.
Although how long Ryan searched is unclear, he eventually ended up in El Dorado, Arkansas (about 120 miles south of Little Rock). The box belonged to Jimmie Stanley, who died in a car crash in 1977, when his daughter Tina was seven years old.
Tina didn’t have many memories of her dad or what he’d accomplished, but now she has the medals he won for surviving a battle that killed seven of the nine men in his unit..and for saving his entire platoon.
