Forty years after returning from Vietnam, a loyal soldier completed one final mission.
When Sgt. Frank Cybulski was injured in a mine explosion in 1970 while serving, he was whisked off to a hospital in Long Binh, Vietnam and then sent home to Michigan, but he left behind one of his most precious possessions –- a hunting knife that his parents had given him, Detroit News reported.
Cybulski’s buddy, Sgt. Loyd Cates, retrieved the knife and held onto it -- certain that one day, the two would be reunited.
Finally, after more than four decades, the Texas native felt ready to take up the search. He contacted Lenny Deskins, an administrator for the Facebook group, “I grew up in Hamtramck before 1985,” for help.
Deskins reached out to Cybulski’s ex-wife who helped facilitate the reunion.
“I just stared at the box for like 10 minutes,” Cybulski, 64, told Detroit News after getting the delivery. “I opened it up and pulled the knife out. That’s when I started crying.”
Getting such sentimental items back from war often allows vets to open up about the experiences that are difficult to talk about.
When William Kadar, a World War II veteran who served in France, got his Army-issued duffel bag returned by a French teen who found the bag in his grandfather’s house, the family was grateful to have a tangible piece of history.
"It's given us a deeper understanding of what he and others went through," Kadar's granddaughter Amy Parsons told the Associated Press. "We don't have that perspective in the U.S. as much. (Kadar) always said, `It's a miracle I came home.'"
Related
Before You Go
