Discovered WWII burial brings two worlds together
PORTLAND, Ore. (PORTLAND TRIBUNE) -- From the moment I heard the story from World War II veteran Dick Powers of Portland, to the day I answered a phone call from a tearful JoAnne Tyner of Eastchester, NY, my quest involved 21 years of my life.
In August of 1943, Powers — one of our nation’s first U.S. Army ski troops — discovered the grave of American pilot Joseph Levy, 23, on the volcanic island of Kiska in the Aleutians. Japanese soldiers based on the Alaskan island had buried Levy and marked his grave, a break from how the war was being conducted. That discovery stunned Sgt. Powers, a defining experience of the war and the rest of his life.
Levy also defined Tyner’s life. She is his namesake. Her mother, Edna Edison, was Levy’s sister. Three years after his death, Edna named her newborn daughter JoAnne, a tribute to her much-loved brother. Later she also named her second child, a boy, Joseph.
Powers also fought in Italy, earning the Bronze Star for meritorious service in combat in the Apennine Mountains and the Po Valley. After the war, he became a successful Portland photographer and died in 2015. But what he learned about Levy’s burial on the island before then finally found its way to his family.
How the story began
When the 87th Mountain Division loaded onto ships that August for their first ever combat, they knew nothing about their assignment, until infamous Japanese propagandist Tokyo Rose came on the radio.
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