Found dog tags returned to Army Reserve veteran

A Marietta mystery came to a happy conclusion Wednesday when a veteran was reunited with his long lost dog tags.

Lois Schwartz was shocked last week when workers who were replacing her roof found them hidden among the shingles.

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"The roofers came by and they were scraping off the roof and they knocked on the door and they said that they found these dog tags," said Schwartz.

The Schwartzes bought the house in the Willow Point subdivision from Robert Eaton back in 1978, so she said it is possible the tags had been up there for nearly 40 years.

"Robert Eaton, he has B-positive blood, his Social Security number and he's Protestant," Schwartz read from the tags.

Schwartz launched a campaign to locate Eaton so that she could return the memento.

"I've put stuff on Facebook. I've tried to do everything I can, but it all just turned into dead ends," said Schwartz.

Fortunately, Robert Eaton happened to be watching FOX 5 on Tuesday evening and saw the story about the tags.

"When I saw the story that you know it was up to the point you know it showed my name and that was so surprising. So, I replayed it two or three times," said Eaton.

Eaton called his two daughters to tell them the news about his dog tags that had been found.

"That was our childhood home in the 70's," said Eaton's daughter, Marci Leinonen. "We have no idea how the dog tags ended up on the roof. My sister and I sent Lois a message on Facebook and have had some contact with her."

Leinonen told FOX 5 that her father graduated from the University of Cincinnati and moved to Michigan before being transferred to Atlanta, while in the Army reserves in the early 1970's.

Eaton drove to his former home Wednesday evening to meet with the Schwartzes and retrieve the tags.

"It's been a flood of memories for all of us and it's such a blessing and we appreciate very much you taking all this effort for a complete stranger really," he told Lois Schwartz.

"To me it was a veteran and it meant something and I just have something in my heart for the veterans," she responded.