Bixby Marine Veteran Reunited With Lost Military Items

After a month-long search, Marine Veteran Chuck Burks finally gets to hold his most prized possessions; over thirty years of memories and awards. The box contains everything from medals, to promotion plaques signed by former presidents. 

"You can't buy this stuff I couldn't replace it, so it's just something that, it's worth a lot more than anything else in my house right now," Chuck Burks, Lt. Col. (ret.), told News on 6.  

Burks was moving out of his home in Glenpool and says the box must have fallen off his trailer. He would have never seen it again, if not for Mike Thornburg. 

"We pulled out on the highway and there past a 64 sign was a box that just told me to pick it up," says Thornburg. 

Thornburg found a box on the side of the road earlier in August off of 151st and 75. He is also a veteran and served in the National Guard, and knew the items belonged to a military man. Thornburg says he could not find the man it belonged to, so he contacted News on 6. We reached out to Shane Faulkner with the the Oklahoma's veteran affairs office, to see if they had Burks on file. Faulkner said Burks had gone to them to file benefits, so they did have a record of him. 

 "We actually have people call me before, a lot of stories like this,a lot of times we are not able to find them," says Faulkner. "Each and every item in that box that shows the sacrifice this gentleman had to his country and we are just happy to help bring it back to him."

The reunion turned out to be a priceless moment and showed how a lost box, led to these men, finding friendship. 

Mike Thornburg, veteran: "I got to see the smile on his face, he gets to take the box home, and the commission to me is overall, the lord has blessed me to find this person and that's what I did."

Burks and Thornburg say they plan to have a Pepsi together sometime soon. 

The Oklahoma Veterans Affairs office says they just launched a new Veterans Registry. It will not only help identify how many veterans are in the state but also help with cases like Chuck Burks'.

You can find a link to that registry HERE