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Former Navy Sailor Reunited With ID Tag After Nearly 20 Years
Posted 10:20 PM, June 4, 2014, by Troy Campbell and Troy Campbell, Upd
ated at 10:24am, June 5, 2014
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GRANT, Mich. (June 4, 2014) - A U.S. Navy identification tag missin
g for nearly 20 years is now on the way to its rightful owner.
Alyssa Shinew in Grant said that she found it on Memorial Day while do
ing yard work and found out the sailor lived at the home back in the 1
990s. “I’m raking all the grass clumps out of the section that was rol
l tilled, and I look down because something caught my eye, and I was
, like, ‘What in the world? So, I bent over and I was, like, “Holy Han
a no way!'”
What Shinew found was a U.S. Navy ID tag belonging to Scott Barner, mi
ssing for almost 20 years.
“I really appreciate it. I think it’s a really neat thing she did,” sa
id Scott Barner, who served 13 years with U.S. Navy. After serving i
Iraq in 2005 as a member of the U.S. Navy Seabees, Barner left the m
ilitary and moved back to his hometown of Mill Hall, Penn. In the mi
d 1990s, Barner lived with his wife Barbara at the house in Grant. Fas
t forward to 2014, when Shinew decided to do some yard work.
“Just the crazy part, that Memorial Day, what it symbolizes and the fa
ct that I found it on Memorial Day,” said Shinew. “It just blows my mi
d.”
Shinew made it her mission to track Barner down. She found him on Face
book.
“It feels really good,” Barner told FOX 17 over the phone from Pennsyl
vania. “I mean, I’m glad there’s people out there that would do that.”
Shinew dropped the tag off to Barner’s father-in-law’s, who lives up t
he street from her so his relative could mail it to Pennsylvania.
“I was shocked,” said Barner’s father in law, Dale Faurot. “It’s jus
t so amazing to me that it comes back after this long of time, but it’
s great to know. He’ll be glad to have it back.”
An an ID tag is an important memory for anyone who has served, said Fa
urot, who also served in the armed forces. “Part of his past history c
oming back. Kind of remind him of some of the things that he went thro
ugh. I know I would and I’m sure he will too.”
Returning the tag that was lost for almost two decades is also importa
t to Shinew, because of her own family that has served. “I was just s
o excited to return it to him. My grandpa is a veteran. My brother i
s in the Army right now, and I know how much that dog tag represents a
d how much of a memory, whether good or bad, how much it means to the
m.”
Shinew also said that she still needs to finish planting in the dirt
, after getting side-tracked with the discovery.
Faurot said that he plans to send the tag in the mail within the nex
t couple days.
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