SAFETY HARBOR, Fla. (DMN) – In places like Safety Harbor, debris and litter were washed ashore by the storm surge caused by Hurricane Debby. Amidst the clutter, a resident stumbled upon a potential relic from the past, dating back almost eight decades.
Suzanne Flament-Smith noticed a significant amount of trash while walking on Bayshore Boulevard on Wednesday.
“There was so much plastic. I’m like, Okay, this is driving me crazy,” Flament-Smith said. “I usually keep a trash bag and gloves in my car.”
She jokes, “I decided to make myself useful.”
“On my third bag, as I was filling it up, I noticed a glass bottle, and you could see the writing, the note and the scripture, I was like, oh my goodness, I think I just found a message in a bottle,” she explained.
She carefully preserved the bottle and brought it back to her home to share the experience with her loved ones.
“There were contents in the bottle, there was sand, a few shells, a bullet casing, and like a mini cannon ball,” Flament-Smith explained.
However, the true treasure lay within: a handwritten message on a weathered sheet of paper, its elegant script now faint from years of exposure to sunlight and the passage of time.
“Dear Lee, received your letter yesterday was glad to hear from you,” Suzanne read.
It appears that she has come across a message from Chris to a friend named Lee.
“I’m going to school again, radio school,” it reads.
The date “3/4/45” is clearly visible next to a U.S. Navy letterhead from the Amphibious Training Base in Little Creek, Virginia.
“It appeared to be a navy military to a friend of some sort, because it mentioned how he wants to see him soon, and things like that,” Flament-Smith explained.
Located over 800 miles from Safety Harbor, Florida, the naval base remains intact, although it now goes by the name Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story.
“We were established because with World War II going on, they needed a place to train amphibious forces like the folks who landed on D-Day on Normandy 80 years ago,” April Phillips, a Navy public affairs officer, said.
Suzanne’s act of tidying up may have uncovered a fascinating historical artifact, which she wishes to share with those connected to the enigma.