Homecoming: The Story of Dixie and Bob, Installment 3 - Doc Marshall

Homecoming; The Story of Dixie and Bob

Installment #3:  Doc Marshall

“What chances would this happen after 69 years?” My conversation with Dr. Robert Marshall started in this manner. I met with Dr. Marshall in his home office in New Allen and he was so pleased to show me the artifacts that he has collected and to tell me his story. It’s an amazing story!

Bob grew up knowing that his dad, Charles Marshall, had been killed in World War II and that his body had never been found. One day while at work in his office as Floyd County Judge Executive Bob received a puzzling phone call. The year was 2007. His secretary said, “Doc, there’s a man on the phone who wants to talk to you, from Germany!” It was a call that Bob is glad he accepted. The man identified himself as Markus Mooser and he started to ask direct questions to Bob. “Is your mom Dixie Ratliff Marshall? Is your father’s name Charles R. Marshall? Was your father killed during WWII?” The natural instinct, and Bob’s instinct as well, was to believe that someone was trying to pull a scam on him. So he was leery to answer any questions. The man went on to say, “I was climbing the hillside looking for ginseng and mushrooms and I stumbled upon a clearing and I believed something important happened there. I dug around and I found some pieces of metal and some bone fragments. I’ve talked to local villagers and I’ve done my research and I am sure that I have found the wreckage of your dad’s downed airplane. I am calling because I feel that your mother Dixie never got closure. I gave him my email address and he said he would be back in touch. I told my wife that you’re not going to believe this, but a man from Germany has called me and he believes he has found the wreckage of dad’s plane. Soon I started getting some emails from Markus and after about 3 months went by he emailed me to tell me that he was going to send me some of the plane parts. He wanted to prove that he was not trying to scam my family. So a few days later I get the box with 8 plane parts inside. One piece of metal with rivets was very valuable for identification. Markus explained that these rivets were very specific and only used on a B-24 Liberator. Found among the pieces of metal was a 20mm bullet. This bullet could very well be the bullet that injured my dad so he couldn’t put his parachute on. At this point, it’s been several months since this all began and I was starting to almost believe that it was true, I guess I was about 60% sure that there may be something to this. But at this point I had not told my mother, not until I was 100% sure.”

So 5 years pass with infrequent emails from Germany and Bob Marshall was still in doubt that anything would ever become from this man’s findings in a German forest. Markus had told him that the next step was convincing the American JPAC group that he had enough evidence to substantiate a formal investigation. Bob explained, “One day I get a letter, and I then I got a phone call from a General who told me that he wanted me to come to Indianapolis to the convention for missing soldiers. At this point I was becoming sure that there was something to this and that maybe we could bring him home. So we went to the convention and we spent two days there discussing our case along with five hundred other families who were looking for the remains of their fallen soldiers. At the final meeting of all the families the General announced that the only excavation that they were going to approve for the year, the only one that had enough evidence to warrant a geological dig was for my dad. The JPAC (Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command) had approved to send personnel to Germany to formally search for remains. On the ride home that day I knew that it was time to tell mom.”

Dixie was gently told one evening and she was shocked and amazed that this was even possible. In 2012 a group of former military members were sent to Starnberg Germany to begin the excavation of the suspected crash site. Working tirelessly, the group found remains that needed to be identified. The family was asked to provide DNA from a member of the family who was from the maternal side of Bob’s family. Luckily, Ray Woody was still alive. At the time he was 97 years old and was Robert’s grandmother’s brother. In the fall of 2012 members of the US military came to the home of Dr. Marshall to formerly inform the family that Sergeant Charles Robert Marshall would be coming home after almost 70 years. The final chapter of this amazing story will be next week when we hear about the homecoming of Sergeant Marshall.