When my Great Grandmother Jeanette Anna Wolf passed away, I found Lyles’s items hidden in a suitcase in her attic 50 years later. That suitcase was a historical jackpot. It contained Lyle’s personal items from his camp that were given to his wife LaVerna after he, his plane, and flight crew were declared missing 3 days after WWII “officially” ended. The suitcase held his honorary burial flag, his flight school records, his personal 201 military records, military photos, and other ephemera.
Lyle was the grandfather I never knew and who died 20 years before I was born. I did not get to know him well until 50 years after his death and through the records and photos, he left behind. I am thankful my great-grandmother never threw anything away. You can read more of Lyle’s history in his biography.
It is amazing that I have all of Lyle’s original military records. I wrote to the National Personnel Records Center to get copies of any records they had on Lyle. I was told they did not have any of his records due to the fire of 1973 at the records office.
The papers shown below were indiscriminately placed in a paper file folder. The first photo is the inside cover of the file folder. Lyle wrote his missions down on it. I later hope to find photos on the internet of the planes that he flew. The column labeled “SHIP #” would be the tail number of the plane he had taken out for his missions that he flew alone. These numbers would have been the last 3 digits of the plane’s serial number.
