A Colorado food pantry helps reunite a woman with her late father’s Purple Heart medal. Janice Kaylor’s father was killed serving his country in Korea before she was born. Private First Class David Beltz was killed in action on May 29th, 1951, just four months after he married Kaylor’s mother. Beltz was awarded the Purple Heart and years later the medal was stolen from Kaylor. She did all she could to try and recover the stolen medal, but figured it was gone for good.
Recently, Grant Winger, executive director Fresh Start Center, a Colorado-based nonprofit, came into possession of Beltz’s Purple Heart. A client of the Center’s food pantry turned it over to him wanting to see it returned to its rightful owner. Winger was up for the challenge and set to work trying to find the medal’s owner. He did some detective work on the computer and found a news article about a Marine with the same name as was on the medal.
Winger reached out to the author of the article, who turned out to be Kaylor’s half-sister. She connected Winger with Kaylor, and now the medal is back where it belongs. Kaylor is happy to have a piece of her father back home and says “I’m so grateful to get it back.”
Source: KOAA
Photo Credit: Getty