Thursday, April 24, 2014

70-Year-Old WWII Dog tags found on Saipan may bring Closure for an 81 Year old Florida Man

The dog tags are pitted, battered. But there is enough left of them to solve a mystery that's haunted a West Delray man for 70 years. 
The dog tags belonged to U.S. Army Private Bernard Gavrin, the uncle of David Rogers, who is now 81. Gavrin was reported missing in action in 1944 during the brutal battle of Saipan, but that was it. No one in Rogers' family ever knew what happened to him.
Now, thanks to a former enemy, Rogers is closer to understanding what happened to his uncle. A Japanese group that searches for the remains of soldiers found Gavrin's dog tags in a cave on the Pacific Island — and representatives delivered the news personally to Rogers and other family members in the states. 
"I am the only living relative to have known my Uncle Bernie," Rogers said. "Words cannot do justice to the shock this news left me with." 
Rogers says he still remembers the screams of his grandmother Bessie when she opened a telegram delivered by the United States War Department.
It was the middle of summer 1944 and World War II was raging. Rogers, 12 at the time, greeted the uniformed man who stood at the door to his Brooklyn home — the bearer of bad news, every mother's worst nightmare. 
The only thing the family knew was that Gavrin was part of the invasion of Saipan, an island fortress heavily defended by the Japanese Army. Sometime between June 15 and July 9, 1944, he disappeared.
Read the rest of the story HERE and view some short video footage from that battle below:



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