Army and World War II veteran Joe Esquibel was guarding a POW camp for German soldiers near Prague 77 years ago when the unthinkable happened.
One of his duffel bags was stolen, and that bag contained a very special engraved bracelet and a few other items, but the story doesn’t end there, according to a VA blog post.
Esquibel, 96, who is also a Purple Heart recipient, served in the 318th Infantry, Company D, Third Army during the war. He enlisted on Sept. 29, 1944, and served in the 318th Infantry, Compay D, Third Army.
While at boot camp in Fort Bliss, Texas, Esquibel purchased a silver wrist bracelet. On one side his signature was engraved. He used a nail to scratch the name Lydia, who later became his wife, on the other. Following his service, the couple were married and had four children together.
Last October, Petr Švihovec found the bracelet and other items from the duffel bag around the ruins of the old camp, near Prague, with his metal detector.
Švihovec turned detective and shared a photo of the bracelet on a Facebook page dedicated to treasure hunting. The group deciphered Esquibel as the last name that was engraved on the bracelet. That led Švihovec to do an internet search which turned up Lydia Esquibel’s obituary from 2019. He read that she had lived in Colorado and that she was survived by her husband, Joe.
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Once again, Švihovec turned to Facebook to attempt to find the owner. Grand Junction, Colorado, resident Alena Busovsk saw the post and called the Esquibel family to connect them with Švihovec.
Švihovec returned the lost items and the bracelet to Esquibel, now 96, during a recent ceremony hosted by VA’s Western Colorado Health Care System.
Some of Esquibel’s family members were on hand for the event, including his daughter, Jolene Esquibel-Archuleta, who called her father, “The most honorable man that there is.”
“It’s been like a dream,” she said. “My dad is deserving of this, but he’s told me that those who deserve this badge of honor are the World War II Veterans that never came back. They’re the ones that deserve it, but he was over there, too, and he’s very proud of it.”
Švihovec also presented Esquibel with a medal, a letter from the Czech Republic’s President, and a certificate from Czech Republic’s Army General Ales.
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Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.