Memorabilia about a World War II veteran killed in action had been lost for more than a decade. When those materials turned up hundreds of miles away, it took American Legion Auxiliary member Katrin Phillips only about four hours to connect them to their owner.
 
“It was a complete rush,” Phillips said of her whirlwind day of research and outreach. “I mean, it was better than any morning coffee you could have.”
 
The story of Phillips’ sleuthing takes place in September 2025. It was then that Vicki Hart, vice president of ALA Unit 81 in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., asked members for help investigating who owned a box dropped off at American Legion Post 81.
 
Hart reported that someone had been driving on a local highway when the box had fallen from the back of a truck in front of them. The driver pulled over to retrieve the box, which contained an old photo album and scrapbook, as well as paperwork and printouts of webpages. 
 
The materials — some more than a century old — centered on Francis O. Moore of Gering, Neb., and his military service. The driver thought The American Legion would be a good place to start to get them back to their owner. 
 
Phillips volunteered to do the work. She immediately dug through the materials about Moore. He died just shy of his 22nd birthday in 1945 when the Army Air Corps B-17 he was piloting was shot down over Germany in WWII. The memorabilia chronicled everything from his parents’ wedding to a telegram reporting he was killed in military action. 
 
Among the materials, Phillips discovered items from 2003-2008 that suggested someone named Larry Robbins had compiled them. 
 
“So now,” Phillips said, “I had to research the researcher.”
 
An online search led her to a 2019 obituary for Robbins, which listed Moore as his uncle who preceded him in death. Phillips found her researcher. 
 
She contacted the funeral home and asked to be connected to his sister, Lois Robbins, whom the obituary listed as surviving. Less than an hour later, Phillips received a call from Nebraska. 
 
It was Lois Robbins.
 
“I’m getting goosebumps as I’m talking about it now,” Phillips said as she told the story.
 
Phillips learned that Larry Robbins, who had briefly lived in Lake Havasu City, kept materials about his heroic uncle and added to them with his own research. 

The memorabilia had been missing since 2014.
 
“I thought they were long, long gone,” Lois Robbins said of the mementos. “I couldn’t imagine they would have survived. I got really excited because my uncle was really special to me. My mom told me stories, and I felt like I knew him a bit.”
 
ALA Unit 81 sent the contents of the box to Lois Robbins, picking up the tab for shipping.
 
Phillips said she’s glad she had the opportunity to be a part of such an important event for the family of a young pilot killed serving his country.
 
“This is one of those moments of unexpected hope,” she said. “It takes a lot of time and effort and a little bit of emotional power and strength just to compile all this information. And to have that lost and then found again? I couldn’t think of a greater wow factor.”