Hayden, ID — Military memorabilia can be found everywhere from thrift stores, to waste collection sites and musty basements. But the stories behind those artifacts can be harder to come by.
Richard Le Francis, director of the Pappy Boyington Field Museum in Hayden, has made it his mission to reunite a piece of military hardware with the story of where it came from.
The Marine Corps League in Kootenai County donated a collection of memorabilia to the Pappy Boyington museum. Among the items was an Arisaka, a Japanese military bolt-action service rifle.
“There was no story with this stuff and it was just accumulating,” said Le Francis. A tag affixed to the World War II-era firearm warned that the rifle had a faulty firing pin and therefore should not be fired.
“The white tag was more of a warning than anything else,” Le Francis.
Curious, Le Francis sought to trace the origin of the war trophy.
“A lot of these stories are being lost,” Le Francis said.
Le France’s quest led him to Dion Holton, a Kootenai County resident who was unable to provide a backstory for the rifle. Holton, however, had a remarkable story about his grandfather, a U.S. Army Air Force pilot who was shot down while softening up German air defenses in the run-up to D-Day.
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