St. Paul woman finds military bracelet, returns it to fallen soldier's mom
ST. PAUL (KMSP) - Over the weekend, Barbara Rozier of Katy, Texas received a package from St. Paul, inside she found a letter from a stranger and a bracelet with her late son's name engraved on it.
"It says 'forever thinning the strawberry patch in my backyard I came across this hard object, dirt covered and scorched,'" read Rozier.
Rozier said a woman from St. Paul found the bracelet damaged and slightly burned in a strawberry patch in her backyard. It's engraved with Lt. Jonathan Rozier, Katy, Texas and the date he died in 2003. Rozier said she never knew the bracelet existed.
Apparently, the St. Paul woman who found it researched the name online and found the address for the Rozier family real estate business.
"My first thought was she's probably a mother," said Rozier. "Because that's something a mother usually thinks of first."
First Lt. Jonathan Rozier served in the army for a year and a half and received two bronze stars, including one for valor, before he was killed in July 2003 during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
"Just before he was deployed to Iraq he had a son," Rozier said. "Justin is now 13 and a half years old. So he never really got to know his dad."
Barbara has kept various momentous from her son's death over the years. The family even had bracelets slightly different than this made but have no idea who could have lost this one. Born and raised down south, Barbara says her son never traveled to Minnesota.
"I'm figuring it must be a battle buddy, he went to Texas A&M," Rozier said. "And Aggies are everywhere worldwide, so it might be a classmate or something."
Turning to Facebook, Rozier hopes through hundreds of shares to find some answers about where the bracelet might have come from before a woman named Annette in St. Paul found it. Until then, she's impressed by this thoughtful gesture from a truly nice Minnesotan.
"Anette if you hear this message, I would love to hear from you again," Rozier said.