Its luster has been dulled and its surface scratched by what were likely decades in the sands of the Atlantic Ocean.

But the inscriptions remain clear on the sterling silver bracelet Tom Dube found.

Tom Dube is seeking the owners of a military identification bracelet (left). This bracelet has G.P. Weaver inscribed on the front.

For Dube -- an avid metal detecting hobbyist who found the bracelet recently off Daytona Beach -- the inscriptions present a good old-fashioned mystery and a mission, and he's not the kind of guy who lets either go easily.

A former U.S. Army man, Dube quickly homed in on whether the G.P. Weaver bracelet and another one he found under the waves on a subsequent weekend -- inscribed "Charles F. Roberts 14121824" -- bear old military identification numbers.

He determined the answer was yes, he said, and the chase to find the owners or their families was on.

"You look at these, and then you think, what's the history of these people? What happened in their lives?" he said. "Did they survive World War II? Did they survive Vietnam? Korea? Whichever era these were in."

So far, the chase hasn't netted the families for Dube, who works for Deltona city code enforcement and has been a freelance writer for years, inking copy about such things as Jeeps, hunting and the outdoors.

He even wrote for Ted Nugent's outdoor magazine -- "Ted Nugent is just the coolest guy," he said.

Dube said he contacted the Florida Department of Veterans' Affairs in Tallahassee, where officials didn't have information about old service numbers.

He then went to the Internet, where he found sites that discussed the numbers.

Based on what he found, Dube concluded the bracelets were probably given by loved ones to soldiers who came from Florida, Georgia or South Carolina during or before the Vietnam War era.

A News-Journal query to Veterans' Affairs officials in Tallahassee, led to Bruce Graetz, senior curator of the Museum of Florida History.

In an e-mail, Graetz said he wasn't personally familiar with being able to break down military service numbers to glean information about soldiers.

But he said such bracelets likely were given by loved ones or privately purchased and "would have provided a backup to military issue service tags, should the dog tags be lost."

The military switched from service numbers to Social Security numbers between 1969 and 1974, depending on the service branch, according to Graetz.

Dube says part of his desire to find the bracelets' owners or their family members stems from his time in the Army, where he was an M1 Abrams tank commander in Germany.

His sense of military allegiance is driven home by the fact he speaks as he sits below a colorful framed montage of one of his grandfathers, a Prussian cavalryman at the beginning of the 20th century.

Part of his desire also stems from a metal-detecting code of ethics that says one should try to track down the owner of an object when they can. And part of his motivation stems from his love of history.

The same love of history helped propel him to his hobby, which in only seven months has generated a treasure trove of coins both rare and mundane, as well as rings and things like the St. Christopher medallion he wears around his neck.

Dube also recently found a diamond ring (right) just north of the Daytona Beach Pier.

Tom Dube, at his home in Deltona, shows some of the objects he has found with his metal detector.

"It's a fun sport that pays for itself. I've been wanting to do it since I was a little boy," Dube said. "I'm 48 years old now. The kids are grown up. I've got four grandkids. And I says, you know what? I'm doing this."

He's even gotten his wife, Rhonda, into it.

Dube says he approaches everything analytically, and metal detecting was the same, as he read numerous books and sought out professionals before taking the leap.

Is it true, does he approach everything with such fervor?

"You can use whatever word you want," Rhonda Dube said with a laugh. "He always goes full force."

By JAMES MILLER
Staff Writer

Copyright Daytona Beach News Journal - 2007

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