Lost Bible returned to slain USAAF airman from World War II

During World War II, a woman bought three brothers Bibles to protect their hearts and guide them as they set out for battle.

The Bible had a metal cover on the front with the inscription “May this keep you safe from harm."

Two of the brothers made it home, while the other, Lt. Edsel J. McKnight of the United States Army Air Forces, was shot down off the coast of France.

His Bible was mailed to the family but was lost sometime after. This month, his family finally got it back.

Ava Coogan's family is from Albany, New York and they found the Bible in late December while going through their late matriarch’s belongings.

On Jan. 11, Coogan met Lt. McKnight’s sister-in-law and returned the Bible to her, allowing her to put it back in its rightful place, next to the ones his brothers brought back home from war.

‘I kept playing with it and flipping through the pages’

Coogan’s uncle and mother found the Bible in a stack of books. Their mother, Rosanne Vartanian, died nearly 20 years ago but was a collector and loved garage sales.

“It’s just so random that my grandmother had the urge to pick that up,” she said. “She bought random things. There was no rhyme or reason to it. It was with a stack of other books.”

Coogan decided to research the Bible and found out soldiers often took them to war. Some can be found in museums.

“The whole premise of it was that the metal cover on the front is like a hard shield,” Coogan told USA TODAY. “They would put it in their coat pockets … like the front breast pocket … that cover would protect their heart from bullets.”

Lt. McKnight’s name was also written in the Bible, said Coogan, who was drawn to the Bible for some reason. She couldn’t put it down, she recalled.

“I kept playing with it and flipping through the pages,” she said. 

She noticed that the Bible’s front cover had a slice in it, almost like something was underneath it. She examined it more closely and found a piece of paper folded up inside. She asked her uncle for help, who carefully used a butter knife to get the slip of paper out. 

Once they retrieved the piece of paper from under the Bible’s cover, they saw that it was a plea for the Bible’s safe return to an address not too far away. 

Although there was no area code, there was a phone number listed, so the family added their own area code and called.

“I was just hoping for the best,” Coogan said. “We found out that number worked.”

Lieutenant was shot down off the coast of France

When Coogan's uncle called the number written in the note, he spoke to a woman named Fay, Lt. McKnight’s sister-in-law. The families organized a meetup on Jan. 11 to return the Bible to the McKnights, who are from Porter Corners, part of Saratoga County in eastern New York.

Lt. McKnight served in the U.S. Air Force’s 365th Fighter Group and 388th Fighter Squadron. He was flying in a Thunderbolt fighter aircraft in 1944 when he was shot down off the coast of France, online records show.

Fay told Coogan and her family that Lt. McKnight has two brothers. All three of the brothers served in WWII. Fay’s husband, Ray, said his Bible saved his life.

“He got shot during the war and it hit where the Bible was, covering his heart, and the bullet went into his arm instead,” Coogan said.

Once Lt. McKnight was killed, his belongings were shipped back home to the family. His sister-in-law had all three Bibles on a bookshelf on display. One day, the family was preparing to go to church. Her nephew borrowed the Bible, but knew it was so precious, the family decided to write a note with contact information in case it were ever lost.

“He didn't lose it,” Coogan said. “He brought it back after church and I guess what happened is after someone passed in their family, they had an estate sale … and it just accidentally went out with a stack of books.”

It ended up in Coogan’s grandmother’s hands, she said. Returning the Bible to the McKnight family was quite the enlightening experience, Coogan said.

“That was really cool because that's when we kind of got to hear their story,” she said.