Flea market find with history

[Garandy]

I have already researched this item and been in contact with the family. The last surviving family member wanted me to keep it as she believes I was supposed to discover it and keep the memory of the men alive.

it began about 5 years ago at my local flea market when my military picker was late. I visited other booths never containing military items. I saw a sheet covering a green military trunk it was being used as a table for dishes covered by the sheet. Moving the sheet I saw USMCR in gold stencils and the last name Ericson and I knew my cousin married an Ericson and her husband’s uncle was an Ericson, one of Edsons Raiders KIA. I was able to buy the trunk for 15.00 from the other guy. No relationship to my cousin, but several hits came up. 
The trunk belonged to a USMC Lt William F Ericson who was a USMC pilot flying F4u Corsairs. On a training exercise out of Page Field his Corsair was lost from his formation and it took awhile for the USN to find his remains. In 1943

His mother In Staten Island NY never believed he was dead and always expected him home. The trunk has the original shipping labels from Port Royale SC back to Port Jervis  NY 

This Marine had a younger brother who had a son in 1944 and the nephew was named the same William F Ericson after his uncle. The younger Ericson used the trunk at YMCA camp since he had the same name and those labels are on it still. Believe it or not the nephew became a Lt in the US Army and was killed in Viet Nam!

The mother of the original Ericson the USMC Lt kept having very vivid dreams of her son. She visited a medium who told her that her son was trying to contact her from the other side. He had things to tell her. She channeled a book supposedly written by him called “A boy who came home” it’s still in print, I have an original copy from 1947. In it he speaks of Heaven and details what happened that day in the Corsair and his getting lost in the fog all things his mother couldn’t have known.

The only living family member is the widowed wife of the US Army Lt KIA Vietnam. She was amazed I found it knowing the family got rid of the trunk years ago and she believed the mother of the Marine Lt and she knows it’s a true story but asked me to keep the trunk to help relay the story of the 2 men!  In fact till the first Williams mom died, and moved to CT where I found the trunk years after they got rid of all memories, she kept her front porch light on for her son 

 

 

 

[BagmanL6]

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