What began as a cleanup of storm debris turned into a historical discovery for one Safety Harbor, Florida woman, Suzanne Flament-Smith, who stumbled upon a World War II-era message in a bottle while clearing debris left behind by Hurricane Debby.
Last Wednesday, Flament-Smith was walking along Bayshore Boulevard in Safety Harbor, a small town just north of Tampa. Storm surge from Hurricane Debby had washed a large amount of trash and debris onto the shore, and Flament-Smith, frustrated by the sight of so much plastic waste, decided to take action.
“There was so much plastic. I’m like, ‘Okay, this is driving me crazy,'” Flament-Smith recalled. “I usually keep a trash bag and gloves in my car, so I decided to make myself useful.”
As she filled her third bag with trash, Flament-Smith spotted something unusual among the debris—a glass bottle with visible writing inside.
“I noticed a glass bottle, and you could see the writing—the note and the scripture,” she explained. “I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, I think I just found a message in a bottle.'”
Intrigued by her discovery, Flament-Smith took the bottle home to examine its contents with her family. Upon carefully uncorking the bottle, they found a mix of sand, shells, a bullet casing, a small metal ball resembling a mini cannonball, and a fragile, timeworn letter written in cursive ink.
The letter, although partially faded, revealed a personal message from someone named Chris to a friend named Lee. Dated March 4, 1945, the letter was written on U.S. Navy letterhead from the Amphibious Training Base in Little Creek, Virginia.
According to an official Navy website, The Amphibious Training Base (also known as “Little Creek”) was the Navy’s center during WWII for all types of amphibious training and the training of ship’s crews for LSM (landing ship medium), LCI (landing craft infantry), and LCU (landing craft utility); LCM (landing craft mechanized), and LCVP (landing craft vehicle, personnel) boat crews were also trained at Little Creek. Although the base still exists today, it is now known as Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story.
“Dear Lee, received your letter yesterday [and] was glad to hear from you,” the letter began. “I’m going to school again, radio school.”
The letter’s content hinted at the camaraderie between two servicemen during the final months of World War II. Flament-Smith noted that the letter appeared to express a desire for the friends to reunite soon.
“It appeared to be a Navy military letter to a friend of some sort because it mentioned how he wants to see him soon and things like that,” Flament-Smith said.
The discovery of the letter has sparked interest from the U.S. Navy. April Phillips, a Navy public affairs officer, expressed excitement about the find and said the Navy is investigating its authenticity and the identities of the letter’s author and recipient.
“We’re going to do some sleuthing and see what we can track down,” Phillips said. “I can’t wait for this journey to discover what we are going to learn.”
However, without last names or other identifying details, the Navy cautioned that authenticating the letter and tracing its origins might be challenging. While the letterhead appears to be legitimate and from the correct time period, the Navy has not been able to confirm the identities of “Lee” or “Chris.”
“Unfortunately, we will be unable to accurately authenticate this letter,” the Navy stated in an update. “Since we don’t have any last names, we don’t have a way to find out information about Lee or Chris or confirm that Chris worked at the base. However, based on what we could find, it is possible for a letterhead such as this to have existed in March of 1945.”
Despite the uncertainty surrounding the letter’s full story, Flament-Smith is hopeful that her discovery will eventually lead to a reunion with the families of those involved.
“Well, I try to tell my kids if you do good, good things happen,” Flament-Smith reflected. “There is a sense of excitement and also a sense of a story—a story that hopefully we can find its home.”
As the investigation continues, Flament-Smith’s find serves as a reminder of the connections forged during one of the most tumultuous periods in history.
