Brian Bontrager considers the moment this past September when he picked a small piece of metal out of the ground “divine intervention.”

At the time, the Ellsworth man was standing in a lonely pasture five miles southeast of Talihina, in southeast Oklahoma.

That piece of metal turned out to be a military dog tag belonging to United States Air Force Staff Sergeant Robert O. Troyer. Troyer, a Geneseo native, and 12 other crewmen died when their B-29 Superfortress bomber crashed there 70 years ago.

“God put me in the right place at the right time to find that dog tag,” Bontrager said.

Bontrager said it is the closest he has come to standing on hallowed ground.

“To know those 13 men gave their lives defending this country,” he said.“All but one of them had survived World War II, and then to die in a routine training accident.”

Seventy years ago, Troyer was engaged to marry Brian’s aunt, Lou Bontrager.

Tragically, the same day as the crash — Sept. 26, 1949 — Lou was in Hutchinson attending a wedding shower in her honor.

“When she got word that he was killed, she was at that wedding shower,” said David Bontrager of Ellsworth, Brian’s father, and a World War II veteran who served in the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division.

After finding the dog tag, Brian presented it to Lou, who was sitting on a nearby rock.

“Tears started coming down her eyes,” David said.“She said this was the first thing she has ever gotten that really told her Robert died in a plane crash.”

The discovery brought Lou a degree of closure on the death of her first love — albeit 70 years later.

“That was the only thing she had left of him,” Brian said.“To me it was an honor to let her have that (the dog tag).”

David, Brian and Lou, along with her current husband, Jerry Saunderson, were invited to a three day dedication ceremony for the 13 air-crewmen Sept. 27-29 in Talihina by Rob Troyer, Sgt. Troyer’s nephew.

“He was born three days after the plane crash,” David said.

During the three day remembrance, the town dedicated a memorial plaque in the air crew’s honor at city hall, hosted a dinner for their families, and held a parade.

David said 13 riderless horses carrying pictures of each air crew member on their saddles ended the parade.

David knew Sgt. Troyer well since they grew up together in Hutchinson. “When Robert turned 18 he joined the Army Air Corps,” he said. “He had been in the Pacific running a lot of missions as a tail gunner on a B-24 bomber.” After the war was over, David said Sgt. Troyer didn’t enjoy civilian life, so he re-enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and was assigned as a tail gunner on a B-29 bomber belonging to the 352nd Squadron of the 301st Bomb Group Smoky Hill (Schilling) Air Force Base in Salina. “I knew he (Sgt. Troyer) planned on making the Air Force his career, because he loved it,” David said. While stationed in Salina, David said Sgt. Troyer came home to visit. It was then he and Lou became reaquainted and later engaged to be married. On the day of the crash, Troyer and his air crew were on a training mission from Salina to Texas. According to David, while the bomber was flying over Oklahoma, the pilots requested coffee from the aircrew. After plugging in the coffee pot, the aircraft unexpectedly exploded in midair. “They (the Air Force) called it an internal compression combustion,” David said. The plane crashed at 7:05 p.m. “There were several people who saw the plane having trouble,” David said.“They saw it spiral and then head straight down.” The only part of the aircraft still intact after the crash was the tail section. “That’s how they identified it,” David said. David and Brian said the discovery of Sgt. Troyer’s dog tag makes this upcoming Veteran’s Day even more special for them. “It’s humbling to me,” David said. “I’m 93 years-old, and the good Lord has been good to me and given me a good life. I feel humbled that I had the privilege of going to Talihina and experiencing this.” “It was a humbling experience for me,” Brian added. “Knowing the men had gone in and served and made the ultimate sacrifice — to me it just honors the rest of them who served and survived.”