Closet Cleaning at Fire Station Uncovers Amazing Find

Three years ago, Hartsville Fire Chief Chris McDonald decided it was time to go through the station's archives, a metal cabinet containing decades of collected news clippings, pictures and other documents.

As he laid out the archives on a table for the rest of the volunteer firefighters to look at during the station's Christmas party, McDonald came across two letters, one dated Feb. 14, 1945, and the other dated Oct. 4, 1945. He has not let go of them since.

"I have kept it either at home or in my truck," said McDonald. "I've been trying to track down any family member, they should be the ones to have it."

Both letters are addressed to Anna Dager, regarding the death of her son, Thomas Dager, a Hartsville firefighter who died while fighting in Luxembourg during World War II.

The first, from General James A. Ulio, expressed regret that Dager had died on Jan. 23, 1945. The second letter, from military chaplain Edward Harrison, gave more details surrounding Dager's death. According to the letter, Dager was killed in action as Allied forces began the assault on the Saar-Moselle triangle, a German fortification in Luxembourg based at the foundation of a triangle naturally formed by the meeting of the Saar and Moselle rivers.

It took the army approximately six weeks of heavy warfare to take the triangle and establish a bridge over the Moselle river, but the advancement cost the lives of soldiers like Dager. His body is buried at the American Military Cemetary in Luxembourg, one of more than 5,000 American soldiers interred in the Luxembourg City memorial, according to the letter. 

Dager's name is the first listed on the Hartsville Fire Company's World War II memorial, a gold star next to his name signifying that he is the only casualty of the 36 Hartsville members who fought in the war.

McDonald is not sure how the letters ended up in the station's archives. They are addressed to the Ivyland post office, but he could not find any family members in the borough. MacDonald suspects that Dager's family may be in Warwick or Jamison, but they used the Ivyland post office for mail.

Anybody with possible information about the location for a family member of Thomas Dager is urged to contact McDonald at firechief93@hartsvillefc.org or call the station at (215) 672-9242.