ARLINGTON, Virginia , ARLINGTON, Virginia –
To some, it is an artifact from the greatest generation’s darkest hour; to others, it is a two-ounce, two-inch piece of metal with a simple job, but to one family, it is the link to a hero who never came home.
And thanks to the intervention of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency historians and the kindness of a stranger, turned friend, a Zippo lighter carried by missing Army Air Corps Staff Sgt. Michael Musashe is back with his family after 80 years.
Like so many mysteries in the digital age, it all started with a Facebook post.
“It was purely by coincidence,” said Vince Musashe, the sergeant’s nephew, said. “It was my cousin's cousin that actually came across the Facebook post a year or so ago.”
At a recent Family Member Update in New Orleans, Louisiana, members of the Musashe family sat down with Heather Harris, DPAA Europe-Mediterranean Directorate and Maj. Patrick Hannon, Army service casualty office, to discuss their missing loved one’s case. At the case summary meeting, Vince shared a screenshot of the “Great Lakes Lighter Club” Facebook page from 2019. The post was from a German-speaking citizen of Switzerland who collected lighters and showed a World War II era lighter inscribed “Musashe 1943” with parts of his service number visible and what appeared to be 27 hash marks on the lighter. Vince speculated that the 27 hash marks represented 27 missions, suggesting that the lighter had been removed from Musashe’s body or from the aircraft wreckage.
On April 29, 1944, the Eighth Air Force dispatched 751 B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator aircraft to bomb a section of Berlin. Musashe was among the American fliers who participated in the attack, his 27th mission. He was assigned to the 427th Bombardment Squadron, 303d Bombardment Group, serving as the tail gunner aboard a B-17G nicknamed the “Spirit of Wanette.”
That fateful day was the 15th day of consecutive bombing, and despite 1,000 U.S. fighter aircraft escorts and extensive damage from 75,000 tons of bombs in the area already, the Germans were extremely accurate with their ground fire. According to reports, the artillery hit the Spirit of Wanette in the left wing, disabling one engine and causing a severe fuel leak. Falling out of the massive aerial formation, the crew set a course for neutral Sweden.
Limping along and leaking fuel, the dense cloud cover caused the aircraft to drift too far west over occupied Denmark. Over the island of Falster, a twin-engine German Messerschmitt 210 aircraft spotted the crippled B-17 and tried to attack. However, Musashe shot the enemy aircraft down, when a barrage of ground fire erupted from the island, hitting the B-17 in the fuselage and wings. The pilot, wounded from anti-aircraft shrapnel, ordered the crew to bail out as the Flying Fortress was stuck in a steep climbing position.
The fog and friction of the attack caused confusion in the bailout. The pilot and bombardier believed they had seen 10 parachutes in the sky, but the top turret gunner reported seeing only nine and the co-pilot only saw seven. Five members of the crew were captured by the Germans. The co-pilot landed his parachute near a farmhouse where a friendly civilian informed him that three members of the crew landed in the water and did not come out. He was smuggled by the Danish Resistance to Sweden.
Over the coming weeks, remains of the three additional crewmembers were recovered and the Germans buried them in Svino, Sjaelland. There were no records of the waist gunner, Sgt. Frank Gorgon, or Musashe though.
The War Department waited over a year for Musashe to either reappear, perhaps from a German POW camp, or for graves registration personnel to recover his remains. When neither of these happened, the War Department issued him a finding of death on Nov. 7, 1945, leaving a deep void for his family.
His mother never believed that Musashe died, and so she did not have any memorial placed, Vince said about the lack of closure for his grandmother and Musashe’s siblings, including one sister, 95-year-old Virginia Zoller, still alive today.
“This was mainly my grandmother,” Vince said. “To her, the fact that her son was missing in action meant that he could still be alive. No body, no proof of death. On her bedroom dresser until the day she died, she had a picture of Michael front and center surrounded by other memorabilia. We used to refer to it as her shrine…In her mind, if the picture was ever moved it could mean Michael was never coming back. She always wanted that picture there standing vigil until he returned.”
By lunchtime that day of the Family Member Update, resourceful DPAA historians in the European-Mediterranean directorate had found the post and the current owner of the Zippo, Rolf Gerster.
Mark Russell, DPAA Chief of Research in the Europe-Mediterranean Directorate, and Jordan Malfoy, Europe-Mediterranean Directorate historian, reached out for the story behind the lighter, explaining how any history of the lighter might help contain clues for a future recovery of Musashe’s remains. They were hopeful Gerster could tell them where the lighter was originally found.
“It happens about once a year, we hear of a class ring or something to track down,” Russell said. “It is not a piece of the plane, might have been kept with Musashe, or left in his foot locker back at the airfield he departed from on this mission. But either way it is odd that it is out there changing hands. Sometimes it has nothing to do with the final resting place, but sometimes it can reveal clues or a pathway back to a crash site, and we must investigate.”
Gerster replied, in an email, that he purchased the lighter in Bavaria and the seller had no details about the origin of the Zippo.
DPAA historians stepped aside and provided Gerster’s contact information to the Musashe family, who was hoping to obtain the lighter as something to remember their long-lost Airman by.
“We found out the collector was a Swiss armed forces officer,” Vince, a Navy veteran living in Auburn, Alabama said. “I also shared that like him, I was military. I truly believe that was a key to our relationship. We had a common bond of being brothers-in-arms.”
After sharing some military stories of their own, the two veterans’ conversation turned to the lighter.
“He felt strongly that the lighter belonged with our family and was happy to be part of bringing a part of my uncle home,” Vince said. “He was extremely helpful in arranging the transfer, telling me the best way to make sure it got to the United States safe and sound. He tracked the shipment and kept me informed at each stage.”
With the lighter in the United States, there was another journey it had to take.
“Shortly after receiving the lighter, my wife and I flew out to Arizona to bring the lighter to [my aunt]” said Vince. “She clutched the lighter as if she was hugging her brother. After 81 years, she did what she said she would do when he came home. She kissed the lighter. She was just so happy that she lived to see this.”
Zoller last saw her brother when she was in the 7th grade, and he left for the war. She remembered his jovial spirit and fun personality.
While Zoller still hopes for her brother’s remains to be found one day, the entire family still found some answers in having a part of his last mission with them.
To the fellow Gold Star families still awaiting answers, Vince had one piece of advice.
“God works in mysterious ways, and on His own timetable,” he said. “There were too many coincidences in finding this lighter. I believe it was Divine Intervention. My cousin's cousin just happened to see a Facebook post. My sister sharing that with me. My attending an FMU. DPAA locating the collector. The collector and I both being military. Finally bringing the lighter to my aunt after 81 years. I would say never give up hope and be ready to find answers in the most unusual ways. And to be thankful for even the simplest answers in getting some closure.”