• March 29, 2024

This Bomber Jacket Was Lost 60 Years Ago….They Just Found The Owner…

A leather bomber jacket owned by a World War II veteran finally found its way home after it was left behind at a bar in Tacoma, Washington, in the early 1950s.

Pat Nesbitt’s uncle gave him the jacket when she was still 5 years old and undergoing treatment for polio, her uncle said that no one returned to the bar to claim the jacket that’s why he brought the jacket at home that had the name “First Lt. Miles F. Blum” stenciled on it.

Pat Nesbitt’s uncle found this bomber jacket that was left behind at a bar in Tacoma, Washington in the early 1950s. With the help of a friend, Nesbitt tracked down the woman whose father wore it during World War II. (KATU)

Nesbitt told KATU-TV:

“When my uncle gave me the jacket, from 10 years old to 18, I put on the jacket because it gave me superpowers.”  

“If he could do 40 missions in that jacket, I could sled down the cliff, and I did. Most people could come back after 25, but he didn’t. This guy was a superhero, and this is a jacket a superhero would wear.”

Nesbitt said he kept the jacket in good condition over the decades.

“I oiled it, replaced the cuffs and the zipper. My biggest goal was to find somebody who would appreciate it as much as I did and eventually give it back to the family,” he said.

Pat had a passion for all war memorabilia. World War II ended in 1945 and Pat had many family members who were in the military.

The jacket became one of Pat’s most prized possessions. It belonged to a man by the name of First Lt. Miles F. Blum.

“When my uncle gave me the jacket, from 10 years old to 18, I put on the jacket because it gave me superpowers,” he said. “If he could do 40 missions in that jacket, I could sled down the cliff, and I did. Most people could come back after 25, but he didn’t. This guy was a superhero, and this is a jacket a superhero would wear.”

Blum flew many of those missions in that jacket, 40 bombs are stamped on the outside of it.

In February this year, Nesbitt decided to look for Blum’s family members to give the jacket to. And just within 45 minutes of looking on Ancestry.com his friend Jerry Ferguson had found Blum’s daughter and only living relative, Teri Sargent, who lives in Bella Vista, Arkansas.

Blum’s daughter Teri Sargent wasn’t aware that Nesbitt had something that belonged to her father. “He flew B24 bombers in that jacket,” Sargent stated. “He flew 40 missions in that jacket. He was all over Europe, France, and Germany.”

Sargent said that her father died in a car accident when she was just 14 years old. “My dad and I were joined at the hip. When he coached the church softball team, I was the batgirl. When he went to Dodger games, I went with him. We were very much alike, and I loved my dad a lot,” she said.

The jacket arrived at Sargent’s home on March 1. “We have had sleet and snow up here in the Ozarks. I opened the door, and the sun was shining, and the box was on the front doorstep,” she said.

“He was a great father. That is how I knew him, as my dad just mowed the lawn, coaching teams, a Boy Scout leader. But I have gone back through now and seen him as a hero. I learned a whole other side of him. I was proud of him as a kid. But I see where he has been. This whole thing made me look at him in a different light and makes me love him even more,” she said. After she received the package it took her time to open it until a few days later.

Sargent was thankful for Nesbitt’s kindness in finding her to give her the jacket:

“I now realize it gave my dad strength through the war and it gave Pat strength through his life. I am so grateful they were able to contact me and get this back into my life.” 

Watch it here: KATU2ABC/Video

Sources: Daily Wire, Eye Witness News, UPI, KATU2 ABC

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