“I was looking for sea glass for some craft projects and stumbled across this dog tag that was practically buried in the sand,” she said in an email to Military Times.
The dog tag belonged to a sailor named Willard Leslie Richerson, who served aboard a cannery tender converted into a Navy patrol boat called the YP-73.
At the moment, however, Brown knew nothing about Richerson. Just that she found a long-lost relic from the past bearing his name.
“When I found this dog tag, I was completely shocked and excited at the same time,” said Brown. “I was so amazed to find such an amazing piece of history.”
Brown said she looked at the name on the dog tag and began to wonder how to reach the family of Richerson, who apparently lost it 78 years ago.
“My original thoughts were to find family members so I could give them this piece of history,” said Brown.
The wife of a Coastie stationed aboard U.S. Coast Guard Base Kodiak, Brown works for the child development center at the base.
But she may have a future running a detective agency.
Brown turned to Google, ultimately locating a “Find A Grave” link for Richerson. It didn’t have much information beyond his birthday — Aug. 14, 1922, the day he died — Jan. 27, 1999 and where he was buried — Johnson Cemetery, Whitehouse Forks, Baldwin County, Alabama.
It did, however, contain a link to a “Find A Grave” page for his widow, Gladys Olivia Wallace Richerson. This one contained the names of several relatives.
Armed with new names, she continued her search.
“I spent a few days/hours researching the internet for possible relatives,” she said. “I was determined to find someone.”
Brown said she found some names linked to Richerson, but didn’t know how to reach them. Not having a Facebook account didn’t help. So she enlisted her friend Michelle Uccardi to look up potential relatives on Facebook and send them messages that a friend had found their loved one’s long-lost dog tag.
Uccardi found several of those people on Facebook and left messages, including one to an Alabama woman named Dawn Johnson, Richerson’s granddaughter.
“Hi, sorry to bother you,” Uccardi wrote in November of 2019, “but by any chance do you have any relation to Willard Lessie Richerson? My best friend is stationed in Kodiak, Alaska and came across a dog tag with that person’s name on it. We have researched on the internet to try and find a family member to send it to."
Because the message came from someone she didn’t know, it languished unseen in Johnson’s inbox until March.
“I was shocked, and couldn’t believe it,” Johnson said in an email to Military Times. “I contacted my dad and asked if Papa had been in Kodiak and he said yes. Then I told him and he was so excited.”
For a while, though, the excitement turned into a letdown. More than a month went by without a response from Uccardi.
“I had given up hope,” Johnson said.
As she waited, Johnson thought of her Papa. Willard Leslie Richerson enlisted in the Navy on July 27, 1942. He went to boot camp in San Diego. After boot camp, he was sent to Kodiak, Alaska, where he served on the YP-73.