Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin

email

You’ve heard this story before. A European stumbles upon a wallet belonging to a WWII veteran on their property 70 years after it was lost by a U.S. soldier. A concerned American spots a Purple Heart sitting in a pawnshop window. Somehow, a military medal or memento has been separated from its owner and ended up in your possession. Now it’s up to you to get it back into the right hands.

Returning a memento to its owner may seem like a puzzling endeavor at first, but you aren’t the first to take on this mission. Plenty of viral stories featuring a returned Purple Heart or military ring can teach us how to find that elusive veteran.

1) Look for identifying marks on the item and photograph them.

Usually, a legitimate military medal will have a name or distinct engraving. Same goes for dog tags and rings. Other mementos like photographs might contain other identifying information. Write down what you find and take photographs of the item. You’ll need this information later.

2) Start a preliminary search for the individual online.

Googling a name and rank is the obvious first step to finding an individual, followed by searching for that person’s Facebook profile. In many cases, this is enough to find the veteran you are looking for.

However, not everyone is active enough online to leave a digital footprint. If Google fails, try using veteran-specific searches like Military.com’s Buddy Finder or the National Archives military personnel locators. None of these searches will provide the personal information of that veteran, but they may be able to pass along a message to them.

3) Contact a nonprofit for help.

There are many veterans charities that are more than happy to help you return a military medal to the veteran who earned it. If you know which military branch the individual served with or the area they live in now, see if you can find any local groups or nonprofits that can connect you to that individual.

If you have a Purple Heart, contact Purple Hearts Reunited, a group specifically dedicated to finding lost Purple Hearts and delivering them to their owners. The nonprofit’s site makes it easy to search a database of lost medals, report a found medal and send it PHR’s headquarters.

4) Recruit the public.

If you hit a dead end, it’s time to make a public appeal. Upload the photos you took of the item to social media and provide any identifying you’ve learned about the owner. Tagging large veteran communities can help get your post exposure. With any luck, some good samaritans will boost your post and help you find the person you are looking for.

5) Upon contacting the service member, confirm it’s the right item by sending photos.

You’ve been connected to the person you think owns the military medal or keepsake. Assuming the pictures aren’t publicly available, share the photos you took with the individual to confirm that this is their item. If everything checks out, you should privately discuss the best way to transport the item. If you did post to social media about the military medal, be sure to update the post and say you’ve succeeded.