May 22, 2013
The family of a deceased Purple Heart recipient will receive their soldier's lost medal.
The News Herald of Panama City was enlisted by an Altha man to find the family of Navy Chief Gunner's Mate Andrew F. Ozment after a local girl found his medal on the street.
Reporter Windy Booher used military records and dozens of tips from callers in this military-heavy region to find Ozment's relatives in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Booher plans to make the 10-hour drive to North Carolina to return the medal on Saturday.
William Brantley, a 70-year-old Altha veteran of the Korean and Vietnam Wars, was asked by a friend to try to find Ozment after the medal was discovered.
Ozment was posthumously awarded the medal for military merit and the award was sent to his mother in Greensboro, where she kept it until she died.
