80 years after her father died in World War II, she finally learned where and how Trendy Blogger

Syracuse, Nebraska — Gerri Eisenhauer’s father, Army Pvt. William Walters, was shipped off to World War II before he was even born.

In 1944, his family recovered his body along with a letter from the U.S. government stating only that he had died somewhere in France.

“I always wondered where he died, how he died, it was just a small part of a puzzle piece that was missing in my life,” Eisenhauer told CBS News.

For decades, the family resigned themselves to the idea of ​​never knowing. That is, until a few months ago.

Eisenhauer was at home in Syracuse, Nebraska, last summer when she received a message from Christophe Ligère, a French historian, from the small village of Grez-sur-Loing in central France. The message read in particular: “On the occasion of the 80th birthday of the liberation of France, we pay tribute to soldier William Walters.

Ligere had found Walters’ name in the diary of an eyewitness to his death, and he immediately felt he had to find Walters’ family. Ligere conducted research and located the Walters’ family tree, and from there he found the online obituary of another of Eisenhauer’s relatives, through which he left him this message.

“We were looking for our soldier,” Eisenhauer’s daughter, Jan Moore, told CBS News. “We didn’t know he was their soldier either.”

As Eisenhauer learned from Ligère, in August 1944, American troops began to liberate the village of Grez-sur-Loing. It was a joyful day, but there was one casualty: while crossing the Loing River into town, Walters’ boat capsized and he drowned at the age of 20.

After Ligère reunited with Walters’ family, he invited them to France to honor their shared hero and the sacrifice he made here. Eisenhauer, his daughter and son, Jan and Allen, made the trip in September.

Marc Perrot had witnessed Walters’ death at the age of 13.

“They went looking for him and found him,” Perrot explained in an interview with France Télévisions. “They did a lot of things to try to revive him, but it didn’t work.”

Perrot met Eisenhauer and showed him where his father was laid to rest before his body was returned to the United States.

“They covered him with flowers,” Eisenhauer said of the French. “It’s just incredible the care they gave him.”

This week, Eisenhauer returned to her father’s grave in Cass County, Nebraska.

“This is the first time I’ve come here and had the answers,” Eisenhauer said.

She says she now feels at peace, and it’s all thanks to the grateful French people, who, even 80 years later, still see the United States through the prism of our better angels.

“It’s very important because the… young people come from the United States… to fight for democracy… in France,” Ligère told CBS News.