Hoosier makes WWII connection overseas - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

Kevin Rader/Eyewitness News

With Veterans Day fast approaching, many of us will take time to honor the men and women who served or are currently serving our country. Eyewitness News found one Hoosier who works ten to twelve hours a day honoring Hoosier soldiers many may have forgotten.

For the families of soldiers listed as missing in action, life can become an agonizing limbo. But some families were surprised to find they were not the only ones searching.

"I never would have thought that he wouldn't come back," said Martha Creed from Shelbyville, who lost her husband in World War Two.

Creed is not alone. Eyewitness News spoke to others who lost someone during WWII.

"He was my hero," said Phillip Maggart from Marion, speaking of his brother.

"He was like a second father to me," said Olive Copeland from Paoli, talking about her brother.

"I really questioned was my dad really real or was he just buried in some grave someplace," said Karlene Abram from Noblesville.

"A knock came to the door and a telegraph person delivered the telegram," said Maggart. "We really never knew what happened. He's still declared missing in action."

Even sixty years later, the MIA status is hard for loved ones to live with.

"The suspense of having somebody declared missing in action is hard to fathom. Nobody can understand it," said Maggart.

That's where Dave Dwiggins comes in to the story. Dwiggins, an Indiana native, moved to the Phillipines to marry. While there, he visited the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.

Dwiggins recently returned for a brief visit to his hometown of Orestes to share the distant memories.

"I looked in the camera at the graves," he said. "I wonder if I can find any from Indiana. I went home and thought just maybe I can find a family and send them a picture of the grave they have never seen before."

Dwiggins was able to do this for several families, and his efforts mean a lot to them.

"I hadn't seen his name on a cross for a long time. That was special. Very special," said Linda Galbraith from Columbus.

"We just thought we don't know where he is. We didn't know where he is memorialized until we got this note from Dwiggins. That was quite a surprise," said Maggart.

"When you walk in and look at the place it rips your heart out," said Dwiggins. "They died on foreign soil and no one brought them home."

The photographs of their loved ones' names etched in stone are precious to these families.

"This was a picture of his monument," said Olive Copeland.

Some 17,000 GI's are buried there in the largest American cemetery on foreign soil. Some 294 of them from Indiana and nearly 700 more Hoosier names grace the wall of the missing.

"I thought I could take a handful of pictures and maybe find one family and then they were so grateful I thought I'll do it again and again," said Dwiggins. "Then after I got those done it was time to think about doing the whole state."

Behind every stone there is a story and behind every name there is a picture. On his website Dwiggins is busy compiling both and piecing together the past.

Karlene Abrams took it the extra mile, actually traveling to the Philippines to meet the father she never knew. Dave Dwiggins was there to help.

"I went around and touched all the other crosses around him as if to say something to every cross because no one had ever visited them before, I am sure," Abrams said.

"You never forget them," said Phillip Maggart.

It's still hard for Phillip Maggart. He's worked for fifty years trying to bring his brother home to reunite the family. Little did he know another Hoosier would be working just as hard half a world away, to put a face with hundreds of Hoosier names because each and every one of them truly does have a story to tell for at least as long as there is someone to listen and only if there is still someone willing to tell it.

"I'm just happy to be a small part of it. That's all," said Dwiggins.

Keep this in mind. This is something Dave Dwiggins does on his own for free. Eyewitness News researched this story for over a year, sifting through these letters and contacting the some 200 Hoosier families who wrote them. This is just a sampling.

If you want to see this for yourself or want to see if you have a loved one buried or memorialized there, see the Indiana Soldiers and Sailors website.