To the Journal editor:

This letter is transcribed from a World War II vet as he passed away this Oct. 22. This letter was one of his unfinished tasks.

“To whoever took two hunting knives off the window ledge from the cabin at the end of Koivula Road.

In November 2012 we did our annual family deer hunt at the cabin on Koivula Road. My grandson gave me a nice new hunting knife with sheath for my 93rd birthday on that trip. It was rather fancy. The other was smaller, plain, the steel was stained as was the sheath, and the handle was bone. Being 93 years old, I forgot and left those knives in the cabin, I think on the window ledge in the kitchen.

The plain knife was purchased by me (Frederick S. Rock) on a troop transport ship in 1943 on route to Italy. That knife cost $1 in the commissary in the hold of that ship. I was the flight engineer on a B17 flying fortress. I was sailing (with hundreds of other young American soldiers) to meet up with my flight crew in Italy. My crew flew from a captured German airfield in northern Italy. We did 50 bombing runs to southern France, Germany, and other places. I carried that knife on all 50 of our missions. In subsequent years I carried that knife on all my hunting trips and used it to clean many deer in Michigan and other states. The knife has very little material value. But it means a lot to me and it should go to my family. Return both knives where you found them in the cabin at the end of Koivula Road (south of Imperial Heights) and be forgiven.”

JORDAN ROCK

Fredrick’s grandson

Middleville, Michigan