Air Force keepsakes found in thrift shop and dumpster returned to veteran’s family

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - With the help of social media, a Morristown family regained sentimental items of their late grandfather.

Dakota Carmichael said his girlfriend found a blue United States Air Force folder at a thrift store. After looking at it, Carmichael decided to make a post on social media to help get it returned to the family of the veteran inside by the name of B.C. Trent.

“Within a couple of hours it got over 200 and something shares across several different counties, and eventually the family actually lives here. They messaged me and were like hey this is interesting, that’s my grandfather,” Carmichael said.

A Sneedville man by the name of Roger Kinsler reached out to Carmichael. Kinsler said he recognized B.C. Trent from something he said he found in the dumpster.

”I noticed a picture album. I dug it out and I said ‘WOW, who would throw something like this in the dumpster?’ I had a longing for 15 years for it to get back to its rightful owner and the family,” explained Kinsler.

Josephine Stuart came forward as the granddaughter of Trent and collected the keepsakes.

Stuart said her grandfather retired as a Chaplin Colonel in the Air Force and severed in WWII, the Korean War and in Vietnam.

Multiple family members had different keepsakes that got lost, scattering the items.

“Some of the stuff in this blue book I haven’t seen before, or maybe I did and I was a child and just don’t remember it. Some of the pictures I’ve seen, some of the letters of recognition I don’t remember. When he was stationed in Alaska he was M.I.A for two weeks. He had crashed his plane and for two weeks they didn’t know where he was,” Stuart said.

She said after retiring, Trent started a business in Morristown before passing away in 2000. Stuart was glad to have the keepsakes back with her family.

”He has always been my hero, even when I was a little girl,” shared Stuart.

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