Act of kindness unites Army footlocker from WWII with soldier’s family after nearly 60 years

Herb Weiss did not know the box existed.

But late one April evening, when the 70-year-old Rhode Islander could not sleep, he saw a Facebook message from a stranger. The man, Michael Shannon, had happened upon an old Army trunk that had been discarded on a curb in Detroit for bulk trash collection.

It was in good shape and bore the name, in all capital letters, Lt. Frank M. Weiss — the name of Herb Weiss’ late father and the rank that he wore when he left the Army at the end of World War II.

The olive-drab box measured 31 inches wide by 16 inches deep and 13 inches tall, featured a brown, metal frame and buckles and a leather handle. It had sat — apparently untouched — in a northwest Detroit garage for nearly six decades, Shannon had learned. Weiss wondered: Could this really be his father’s old Army Air Forces footlocker?