The Associated Press reports that the identification tags of a US soldier wounded in Italy during World War II have been found by a retired police inspector. Daniele Bianchini, whose hobby is metal detecting, found the tags, a ring and a medallion on a former battlefield near Gavorrano [Tuscany] and then set about tracing the soldier’s family.
The soldier, Oscar F Glomb, died in 1998 but Mr Bianchini found his son, who lives in Buda, Texas. Mr Glomb Jr said that his father often talked about his lost identification tags and wanted to return to Italy one day to find them. Father and son travelled to Italy in 1960 to retrace the journey of Oscar Glomb’s unit, the 36th Infantry Division but they did not get as far as Gavorrano.
Oscar Glomb was wounded in the neck, arm and legs in June 1944 and his identification tags were lost as he was carried from the field. His unit had landed at Salerno in 1943. Before he was wounded, Oscar Glomb killed 12 German soldiers and in doing so saved the lives of other soldiers in his unit. However, he was haunted by these deaths because the men were young.
Mr Bianchini was delighted to learn that Oscar Glomb had survived the war, married and had children. He asked for permission to keep one of the tags and said that returning the other to the family was a gesture of thanks to all American soldiers who fought in Italy during World War II. The second identification tag is now in the possession of Oscar Glomb’s widow.
