Idaho museum director finds stories in military artifacts


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SAGLE, Idaho (AP) — A northern Idaho museum director has made it his mission to find forgotten stories while seeking the origins of military memorabilia.

Richard Le Francis finds military artifacts in thrift stores, waste and musty basements, The Bonner County Daily Bee (http://bit.ly/1GR1Bei) reported.

As director of the Pappy Boyington Field Museum in Hayden, Le Francis says he's investigated the origins of war trophies and plenty of wreckage.

The Marine Corps League in Kootenai County donated a collection of memorabilia to the Pappy Boyington museum. Among the items was an Arisaka, a Japanese military bolt-action service rifle.

"There was no story with this stuff and it was just accumulating," said Le Francis.

Le Francis was trying to trace the tale of the Japanese rifle when his hunt led to Kootenai County resident Dion Holton, the grandson of a U.S. Army Air Force veteran.

Holton's grandfather, Jack Ward Holton, was defending air space against German pilots when he was shot down right before D-Day. Holton's wingman, Lt. Milton Merkle, was killed.

Holton safely parachuted from the burning Lockheed P-38 Lightning and was taken in by a farmer. He passed through German-occupied France on foot, buses and trains using falsified travel documents until he reached Switzerland on June 2, 1944.

Some of the wreckage from Holton's P-38 was later exhumed from the soil of the farm, and more than 60 years after the crash the pieces were donated to Dr. Forrest Bird's Aviation Museum & Invention Center in nearby Sagle.

The Bird Museum agreed this month to share some of the wreckage for a display at Pappy Boyington Field Museum.

Le Francis, meanwhile, will continue investigating the origins of military artifacts, perhaps someday finding the story of that Japanese bolt-action rifle.

"What we do is preserve the stories," he said.

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Information from: Bonner County (Idaho) Daily Bee, http://www.bonnercountydailybee.com

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