Glenmora family finds Pennsylvania soldier’s WWII-era dog tag in front yard

GLENMORA, La. (KALB) – On a scorching, summer time day final week, Columbus Rhame powered up the lawnmower and went to chop the grass on his Glenmora property. Alongside the wooden line, close to his outdated storage, he noticed one thing shining within the grime.

“I acquired down and picked it up and it was a canine tag,” he mentioned. “When my spouse acquired dwelling, I handed it to her and he or she cleaned it up and located it was an individual from Pennsylvania.”

The title on the canine tag was Harry F. Steding. It included an deal with and make contact with data for his spouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – greater than a thousand miles away.

“You’d suppose, properly how would it not have gotten right here?” he instructed us.

It was an excellent query. His spouse, Amanda, was decided to seek out that out.

“I knew it was actually outdated,” mentioned Amanda. “It grew to become a thriller to us.”

Amanda did what anybody would do in 2022 – headed to Google. She shortly tracked down Steding’s draft card. Steding joined the army at 20, again in 1941. That 12 months was prime time for Camp Claiborne, and the world surrounding the Rhame’s Glenmora dwelling was as soon as a identified spot for troops to march by.

“Lengthy story brief, he was from Pennsylvania and he was right here coaching,” Amanda instructed us.

Amanda headed to Fb, and that search led her to Steding’s granddaughter, who in flip positioned a name to her mother, Suzettte, who lives in Chesterton, Indiana.

“She acquired a maintain of me, she was all excited,” mentioned Suzette Steding-Ball of her daughter’s cellphone name telling her that the canine tag had been discovered. “Any person discovered grandpa’s canine tag! I’m like, what?”

Amanda and Suzette linked.

“We had been like mates on the first cellphone name,” mentioned Suzette of talking with Amanda.

Suzette mentioned her father served throughout World Battle II and ended up in India. Someplace alongside the way in which, he made a cease at Camp Claiborne as a part of a railroad battalion.

“I hear Camp Claiborne was identified for particular ops and railroading,” mentioned Steding-Ball. “My father was a railroader.”

The railroad profession lasted Steding the remainder of his life as soon as he returned dwelling. He handed away in 1991. Suzette mentioned she faintly remembers her mom mentioning one thing a couple of canine tag rising up. She thinks her father would have gotten a kick out of it being discovered 80 years later.

“He could be flipping,” she instructed us. “He could be like, oh my gosh.”

That canine tag is now within the mail heading dwelling. And, Amanda and Suzette have developed a newfound friendship, one apparently 80 years within the making.

“It’s wonderful how every part comes collectively,” mentioned Amanda. “It’s all about love. It’s all about love.”

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