Lost & Found

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Fred Lohr (D Troop 68-69)

It was 1973 and then-2nd Lt. Tommy W. Mayes was flying training helicopters at Fort Wolters, near Mineral Wells. Because rings weren't allowed in the cockpit, Mayes had a habit of taking off his cherished Texas A&M gold ring and placing it in a zippered bottom cargo pocket on his pants.

But on that particular day, he forgot to remove it, so just before takeoff, Mayes slipped it into a top pocket. He left the zipper open.

Mayes soon landed the copter in a vacant field. Bending over a moment later, the ring slipped out, unbeknownst to him.

Back at the post, Mayes reached for his ring, only a year old.

It was gone.

"Aggies have a special pride when it comes to our rings," he said. There was added significance: The ring bore a tiny diamond that had been part of his mother's wedding ring. "It was pretty devastating."

He and his friends went back to the area countless times to search for the ring, to no avail. Mayes eventually moved on to advanced helicopter training in Alabama.

Nearly 35 years passed.

Then Peggy Harvey, a high school math teacher who for the past seven years has lived on the land that once contained the training area, was walking on the 23 acres she owns when a glimmering object caught her eye.

She leaned over and picked up a ring, which had an inscription inside. She could only make out the first name — Tommy — and the middle initial, but only part of the last name. Busy with school, Harvey put the ring on a shelf for about a year.

Last month, she took the ring down.

"I got to looking at it, and on one side it had a saber and a rifle, so I thought, 'Maybe he's in the (Texas A&M Corps of Cadets)." So she e-mailed the head of the group. Was there a Tommy with a "M" and a "Y" in his last name who graduated in 1972?

"Lo and behold, there was," Harvey said.

A man named Don Crawford put Harvey in touch with Mayes. They e-mailed each other. Are you missing a ring, she asked?

On Sunday, he made the five-hour trip from San Antonio to Mineral Wells to retrieve his ring and personally thank the woman who reunited him with his treasured piece of jewelry.

"There are two things remarkable about this story," said Mayes, now 58. "One, that somebody actually found the ring, and two, they took the time to find me."

Harvey says it never entered her mind to sell the ring, worth at least $200.

She had no idea the small diamond is one of the few keepsakes Mayes has from his parents, both of whom are deceased.

But there's one more twist to this story: "When I was in college, I lost my high school ring," Harvey said.

"A man returned it to me, and he wouldn't accept a reward. He just told me, 'If you ever find a class ring, return it to its owner,'" she said. "So that's what I did."

DAVID MAY/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tommy W. Mayes shows his 1972 Texas A&M University class ring, which was returned to him Sunday by Peggy Harvey, who had found it on land she owns near Mineral Wells.
RVN 68-69  72-73

Fred Lohr

http://www.fredlohr.com