A natural disaster led to a unique Veterans Day reunion for a soldier from Cedar Rapids who served in Vietnam. John Jones lost his 25th Infantry Division ring while swimming in Lake Delhi in 1971, and thought he’d never see the gold ring again.
“Every once in a while I thought about it, I said, aw nobody’s going to find it. And then the dam broke,” Jones said. The dam holding the water in the lake broke during flooding in 2010 and the lake drained away.
A Chicago treasure hunter found the ring under the muddy lake bottom while searching for old beer cans. The ring had Jones’ Social Security number engraved on it, and a Veterans Affairs official was able to trace it back to him.
“I couldn’t believe it, my mind went beserk,” Jones said. Jones was given the ring at a Veterans Day event Sunday.