The final chapter of a 60-year-old mystery was written Monday at a Jacksonville Navy base.
The story began February 25, 1958, when a young fighter pilot with the Royal Canadian Navy failed to arrive for training at Naval Station Mayport.
A helmet and a wheel from his jet were all that was found of 29-year old Lieutenant William Thomas Barry Troy. That is, until last fall, when Hurricanes Irma and Maria uncovered Troy’s parachute and several other items in the sand at Hanna Park.
The Navy returned them to the Canadian government and to Troy’s family Monday in a ceremony at Mayport.
“He was our big brother… yeah, he was our hero and we lost him. But now we have him back—in a way,” said Dick Troy.
Troy was 21-years-old when his older brother disappeared. He said he’d like to bury one of the artifacts with their parents. “On their gravestone they have his name, [and] lost at sea. So I’d like to put something like that in there with my parents.”
The Troys died without knowing what happened to their oldest child.
Contact reporter Cyd Hoskinson at choskinson@wjct.org, 904-358-6351 and on Twitter @cydwjctnews.
