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Published: 2007-03-11
Veteran mails war medals but his daughter receives empty box
By BRIAN MEDEL Yarmouth Bureau
DIGBY — He was there when the U.S. Marine Corps raised the flag on Iwo Jima.
He chatted with Bob Hope in a New Hebrides hospital ward while recovering from a Japanese shrapnel burst at Guadalcanal.
Russell Farrell is an 86-year-old former marine who lives in Digby. He was wounded three times in fact, and decorated with two Purple Hearts and a gold star.
He can talk about the action he was in and tell you about the medals. But he can no longer show the medals.
They've been stolen.
Mr. Farrell, who has lived in Nova Scotia for 30 years, doesn't get out of his Digby apartment much these days, so he had the medals mailed in an insured package to his daughter, Judy Farrell, in California last month.
They never arrived.
"I had no idea someone would steal them," he said Saturday.
Mr. Farrell has no immediate family left nearby. His wife, Alice, passed away more than a year ago, and both his grown children — he also has a son, Russell Jr. — live in California. After his daughter said she would love to have the medals, he decided he would send them to her.
"I think (the package) was mailed the 12th of February. It took about five or six days to get out to my daughter's," said Mr. Farrell.
"She got on the phone and she started crying. She said: 'Dad, the package has been opened. It looks like somebody cut it.'
She said: 'The medals are gone. All that's left are the ribbons.'
"I don't think they'll be found," Mr. Farrell said.
And he added: "I had the medals for 60 years."
Canada Post has launched an investigation, Mr. Farrell said.
"There's a postal inspector coming down to talk to me sometime next week," he said.
He said he has not called the police but is letting the post office handle things.
His daughter reported the theft to American authorities and the U.S. Postal Service is also investigating, he said. "I insured it for $50," said Mr. Farrell about his package.
He said he didn't know then but realizes now that the medals are likely worth a lot more.
The medals were for service at Guadalcanal, Guam and Iwo Jima, and included two Purple Hearts and a gold star to place in the ribbon of one of the Purple Hearts.
The Asiatic-Pacific medal, American Campaign medal, a good conduct medal and a presidential unit citation for the 9th Marine Regiment were also sent.
Mr. Farrell's daughter sent him a photo of a glass-covered frame that once held his medals.
"You can see where the medals were on the frame," he said.
The medals were fastened to wine-coloured velvet. Now some of the ribbon remains, but the medals have been yanked off, leaving a darker velvet outline beneath.
"I had them covered up with towels and everything so the glass wouldn't get broke," said Mr. Farrell.
Ms. Farrell said Saturday from her home in Ventura, Calif., that she hopes the tragic loss will at least "warn other people not to send medals through the mail and alert people that this is happening."
"Hopefully, people won't buy (medals) unless they have proof (they're not stolen)."
( bmedel@herald.ca)
© 2007 The Halifax Herald Limited
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/563908.html
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/563908.html
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