DeLAND, Fla. – Lost letters from a prisoner of war found in Central Florida are soon making their way home.
The DeLand Naval Air Station Museum is currently holding them after a couple recently found them and dropped them off.
“It says he was a POW in the Second World War. Ensign Jimmy Mullins,” the museum’s Special Projects Manager Scott Storz said.
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The letters, photos, a hat and folded American flag were found by the couple at a garage sale. The letters were addressed to and from Jimmy Mullins. Many were written while he was a prisoner of war in Japan for three years.
“We only read a bit of them and quit because they were written when letters were really written,” Storz said.
Articles published in the 1940′s showed Mullins’ mother did not know if he was alive or not for over a year before he sent the letters. They said he was later released from Japan, promoted to commander, got married and had two children.
Storz said working with a Pensacola Naval Base librarian and a Central Florida genealogist, they started looking for Mullins’ children.
“He and his wife had both passed and a son and a daughter had both passed on,” he said.
That’s when they discovered he had a granddaughter who still lives in the state.
Next week, it will be the museum’s first on-site reunion for the granddaughter and the items. Storz said they’re now trying to find the couple who found the items because they didn’t leave a name or say where the garage sale was where they were found.
“I know my mom and I had moved around a lot so it must have been a box that got mislabeled or misplaced somewhere,” Mullins’ granddaughter Emily Smart said.
Smart said she’s never seen many of the photos and items. She’s thrilled the museum found her so she can learn more about her hero grandfather.
“I’m excited to get to see them and be able to show my kids! Tell them ‘Hey, you didn’t get to meet these people but these people were a big part of my life and I want you to know this and to see them,’” she said.
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