Stolen Sword Returned to Korean War Veteran Decades Later
Here is a pretty cool story involving a Korean War veteran:
Early last month, Chip Herrington was headed back to Alabama, where he lives, from Mississippi, where he happened to be working that day. As he drove, Herrington, an attorney, saw some antique and pawn shops along the roadway and decided to stop and take a look around.
That’s when Herrington spotted it — an old military sword, resting in a butter churn next to the bat and gun barrel at the Mississippi shop.
“I saw what I knew to be an old Navy officer’s sword,” Herrington told The Post in a phone interview this week. “I love that kind of stuff, and it was a good price, I thought. So I bought it for $40.”
The sword was listed as a Civil War-era piece of equipment, even though it wasn’t. And the scabbard wasn’t in great shape — the leather peeling away — but Herrington said he understood what he had was once valuable to someone.
“I knew exactly what it was when I saw it,” Herrington said.
When Herrington got home and took a closer look at the sword, he noticed that it was inscribed with a name — ROY M. JOHNSEN, written in all caps, just like that. [Washington Post]
You can read the rest at the link, but Herrington was able to track down Roy M. Johnsen and found out that he was a 88 year old Korean War veteran who had the sword stolen decades ago.
