Wim Hasman found a World War II mess tin in Germany's Huertgen Forest with the name "Emmit S. Collins" carved into it.
“Under the name — the letters RIP — I thought he was dead,” Hasman said of the information his efforts revealed.
Later, though, a very confused Hasman found mention online of Collins’ death not in 1940s Germany, but in 1999, a world away in Arkansas.
Pearl [Collins], who began communicating with Hasman early last week, was able to explain the engraving.
“That was his nickname when he was in the Army,” she told to a Courier editor when contacted by telephone last Monday. [Link]
