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PBS 'Detectives' Find A Home For WWII Diary

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By WALT BELCHER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 29, 2008

TAMPA - TAMPA - Air Force fighter pilot Bill Moran wrote in his diary about a premonition he had. He feared he wouldn't make it back from one of the 28 missions he flew during World War II.

But the young solider, only 23 years old, didn't die on that mission. After he returned, he wrote that he was no longer afraid to face death. His only fear was leaving behind a pregnant teenage wife.

Death was on the minds of a lot of the men who flew the B-24 bombers, nicknamed the "The Flying Coffins." The causality rate on raids into Germany was 60 percent.

Moran only had seven more missions to complete before he could return to Mary Jane, who was waiting at home in Pittsburgh.

He wrote about her a lot in a little blue book he kept by his bunk. He made an entry every night for almost a year. The last was Oct. 29, 1944.

Two days later, on a training mission over the English Channel, Moran's aircraft disappeared. His body was never found, and his daughter grew up without ever meeting her father.

"It's a sad story in many ways," said Moran's sister, Adelaide Young of Sebring, who was 14 when her older brother died.

Only recently, did Young and Moran's daughter, Jamie Layman of Pittsburgh, learn about Moran's war experiences when his diary was returned to the family through the efforts of the PBS series "History Detectives."

The series, on which a team of researchers try to solve historical puzzles, will feature the story of Moran's diary on the season debut at 9 p.m. Monday.

"We didn't even know that my brother had kept a diary," Young said.

She says that during the war, the family would get a letter from her brother, and each person would read it and pass it on.

"We were happy to get those letters, but this diary has a lot of his personal thoughts, and it is so much more than a letter," she said.

Jim Chapman. Jr. of Lexington, N.C. found the diary 20 years ago after his father died. It was among his father's possessions. His father was a fellow pilot and friend of Moran.

Chapman had tried to find Moran's relatives for years. He eventually turned to "History Detectives."

Wes Cowan, an anthropologist, historian and antiques expert on the show, narrates the segment Monday. He also interviews the people involved. But he said most of the research was done by the series' production staff.

Chapman tells Cowan that he wants to know the fate of Bill Moran and whether there are any relatives that could give the diary a new home.

"This is an amazing story," Cowan said in a recent telephone interview. "It's dramatic and emotionally charged. Here is a man who was writing passages that he never expected anyone would read. And it's filled with love for a woman he misses and loves. And in reading it, you know that he would never see her again."

There are mentions of the deadly missions and those who didn't come back. There is a note about using his last six shillings to buy beer for his comrades to celebrate the news that Mary Jane was pregnant.

Cowan says whenever he comes across personal material like this he feels privileged to be sharing this personal history.

Using Internet searches of military files, researchers located a fellow pilot who served with Moran. He recalled Moran and Mary Jane. He knew that Moran came from Pittsburgh.

Cowan and researchers looked though genealogical records and newspaper obituaries. They eventually located Young in Sebring.

Young said her family had relocated to Miami after the war. Her brothers and sisters scattered when they were grown. She has lived in Sebring for 30 years. She said there never was a memorial service for her brother because for years the family felt he would be found.

Young said the disappearance of her brother was hard on Mary Jane. Their daughter was born 32 days after Moran disappeared. But Mary Jane wasn't told until later. "She was inconsolable. She was unbelievably in grief," Young said.

Mary Jane remained in Pittsburgh, remarried and then died when she was 38.

"She was a very beautiful woman," Young said. "My brother called her 'his angel.' He was very, very much in love with her. It's so tragic that he didn't get back to her."

There is an emotional moment during the program when Chapman, Layman and Young meet to exchange the diary.

Young said she has seen some of the contents of the diary and has held it briefly. But she has not been able to read the entire diary, which has been given to Layman. She hopes to get a copy soon.

"I know that Bill wrote 'Happy Day' in big letters on the day he learned he was going to be a father," she said. "He was so excited. He loved children and was already buying toys for the baby."

Why the elder Chapman kept the diary after he returned from the war is still a mystery.

"We don't know because Mr. Chapman found this diary after his father had died, and he had no clue about its origin or existence," Cowan said.

He said that "we can only speculate" that the elder Chapman didn't want to upset the wife "who was an emotional wreck after she found out her husband was lost."

ON TELEVISION

History Detectives

WHAT: PBS series that solves historical puzzles reunites a family with a World War II soldier's diary.

WHEN: 9 p.m. Monday

WHERE: WEDU, Channel 3

Reporter Walt Belcher can be reached at (813) 259-7654 or wbelcher@tampatrib.com.

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