As an explosion rocked the cruiser USS Astoria during the Battle of Savo Island in 1942, young Elgin Staples from Akron, Ohio, grabbed his inflatable life belt. Then another explosion hit, and the deck beneath him disappeared, sending him into the ocean.
With the help of his belt, he floated that night for four hours. An American destroyer passed by, pulled him out and took him back to the Astoria, disabled but still floating. The ship, however, began to capsize, and Staples found himself back in the water again.
The survivors were rescued and given fresh uniforms, but Staples kept that lifesaving belt.
When he returned home, he showed his mom the belt. What followed literally became a “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not” story. The belt was made at a Firestone plant in Akron, where his mother worked. She noticed a number on the belt that referred to a quality-control inspector at the plant. She was the very inspector who had checked that belt. The story attracted national news.
Move forward to 1965. Staples’ son, Elgin Jr., enlisted as a Marine. He was deployed to Vietnam, where he was killed in action on July 12, 1965, at age 18.
Father and son received Purple Hearts. Those awards, along with their other medals, were arranged into shadow boxes, one for Staples Sr. and one for Staples Jr.
Now move forward to 2011. Century 21 Realtors Linda Ring and Terri Davids were preparing for their booth at this year’s San Diego County Fair. They wanted something to represent all branches of the military, since they create their booth as a welcome home to the troops.
They were shopping at antique and thrift stores in Solana Beach when Davids noticed the two shadow boxes. Both boxes had an engraved nameplate, and they realized that the boxes belonged to a father and son. Feeling as though the boxes did not belong in a thrift store, but not knowing how they left the family’s possession, Ring and Davids bought them and decided they would find the family or give the boxes to a museum. After learning about Elgin Staples Sr. and his incredible tale, they were more determined to find the proper home for the boxes. And, indeed, that’s what will happen today.
Allen Staples will receive the boxes displaying the insignia worn and the service medals earned by his father and older brother.
After Staples Sr. died at age 86 in November 2009, Allen said he received nothing from his father’s estate, and had been unable to reach the executor of the will.
“I have been upset for the last couple of years,” said Allen of San Jose. “I haven’t gotten over it yet.”
The medals have been displayed for six months at Ring’s and Davids’ Chula Vista office and at the fair. The pair searched for the family and talked with fairgoers hoping that someone might know about the boxes. When Paul Curtis saw the medals at the fair on June 21, he knew that he had to help find the family. After a discussion with Ring, he promised to assist.
“That needed to go to some family member if they wanted it, and if they didn’t want it, then it needed to go to a military museum,” Curtis said. “There is a lot of significance to that.”
He said mementos like the boxes don’t belong in thrift stores. “They are not something that was simply purchased with money. They were earned.”
Curtis said it took him around 20 minutes to find contact information for Allen Staples and forwarded it to Ring within a day. “This is huge; It means a lot,” Allen said.
Though he says that he knew his father had a Purple Heart, Allen had no knowledge of the boxes before Ring’s phone call. Allen isn’t sure how the boxes left the family to begin with. He’s just happy to have them back.
Ring said that the Fourth of July will be about him and the shadow boxes. Ring plans to have bagpipes playing “Amazing Grace” and escorting Allen Staples, Curtis and Davids into the fair and to the Century 21 booth on the second row of the Exhibit Hall.
Staples plans to display the boxes in his home. With no family to pass them on to, he will eventually consider donating them to a museum.
He will be in the booth for most of the day today, but insists it’s not about him. “It’s all about my dad and Linda and Terri and Paul. They were the ones who were instrumental in all of this. ... I’m just lucky to have them and have something to remember my father by.”
By Colleen Peters
