By Joel Landau / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Betty McAleenan, 94, gave her husband, Staff Sgt. Robert Greebull, her class ring before he deployed. Greebull's plane wrecked in Papua New Guinea during World War II and the aircraft was discovered 30 years ago. The beloved memento was finally returned Sunday in Wyoming.
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Betty McAleenan, 94, gave her husband Robert Greebull a ring when he left for deployment in World War II. Robert was killed on his 39th mission and the wreckage was recently discovered. She has now been reunited with the ring. |
Seventy years after the death of her husband in World War II, Betty McAleenan has something familiar to remember her husband.
The 94-year-old Wyoming resident gave Staff Sgt. Robert Greebull her high school class ring when he deployed — and it has finally been returned. Greebull, a bomber gunner with the U.S. Army Air Corps, performed 38 successful missions but died on the 39th when his plane crashed over Papua New Guinea, according to TV Station KWOW.
The wreckage from the plane was discovered 30 years ago, but McAleenan
was reunited with the ring she gave her beloved on Sunday, reported TV Station WDAF.
The U.S. government continues to search for wreckage of lost planes in the South Pacific.
The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
led a team of scientists and engineers last month to use radar to find
planes unaccounted for in Papua New Guinea. The team is searching in
heavily forested areas to find the aircraft.
But for McAleenan, it is about finding closure after losing her love. The widow cried as she opened the box and remembered her husband's heroics.
"I gave it to him so that way we could be together," she said through tears.
jlandau@nydailynews.com Follow on Twitter @joelzlandau
The 94-year-old Wyoming resident gave Staff Sgt. Robert Greebull her high school class ring when he deployed — and it has finally been returned. Greebull, a bomber gunner with the U.S. Army Air Corps, performed 38 successful missions but died on the 39th when his plane crashed over Papua New Guinea, according to TV Station KWOW.
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Betty McAleenan is presented with her husband's ring on Sunday in Cheyenne, Wyo. |
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Staff Sgt. Robert Greebull died when his plane went down in the South Pacific. It took decades for this one piece of him to be returned. |
But for McAleenan, it is about finding closure after losing her love. The widow cried as she opened the box and remembered her husband's heroics.
"I gave it to him so that way we could be together," she said through tears.
jlandau@nydailynews.com Follow on Twitter @joelzlandau
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