FOX23 Investigates: Finding out how an old military document landed in a BA woman's yard

BROKEN ARROW, Okla. — FOX23 has told you about an important military document that somehow ended up in a Broken Arrow's woman's yard.

FOX23 has been working to unravel how it got there, now we have new information.

A white piece of paper sticking up out of leaves caught Wanda Talley's attention last spring. She picked it up out of the corner of her yard.

"I thought oh my gosh, this isn't a notebook paper," Talley said. "This is very important."

The paper she found is a typed military document that's more than 50 years old. It's dated Sept. 29,1972.

It said at the top, "Department of the Army" with 28 soldiers' names listed on the front and back.

It also showed their social security numbers and rank. It gives the mens' orders to be deployed to Vietnam.

It even displayed what those men should bring: like a "combat tropical uniform." It said a "field jacket will be carried as comfort item."

Talley wanted to know who these veterans were and what happened to them.

"I felt like, in some way, I was connected to these young men. And I would love to know, if they survived and made it home," she said.

FOX23 researched and found every single one of the 28 veterans on the document, so we went back to tell Talley.

One of the questions Talley had was did these men make it through Vietnam? All of the men on the document did in fact survive and make it from Vietnam.

"I could just cry for happiness," she said.

Most of them were born between 1952 and 1953 so not all of them are still living today, some have passed away of various things but they did not die in the Vietnam War.

The veterans come from all across the United States, and only one on the list was from Oklahoma.

After figuring out who that one Oklahoman is, we were able to find out he lives only a one minute walk away from Talley.

FOX23 came down the road to that veteran's home. We ended up talking to his son and found out his dad's had some health problems and needs some time to recover. So we'll wait and check in with him later.

Talley finally has at least part of the answer to her big question, how in the world that paper landed in her yard.

Hopefully when Talley's neighbor, the veteran, is feeling better, we can talk to him, and he can shed some light on how this military document made it from his house to Talley's yard.

At least a big part of this mystery is solved.