Family searching for missing WWII uniform, hopes to recover cherished heirloom

HERRIMAN — A Utah family is searching for a World War II military uniform that they believe was thrifted somewhere in eastern Idaho without their permission, and they are asking for the public's help in tracking it down.

For Amber Malm, the uniform belonged to more than a veteran. It belonged to her grandfather, William Reed Roberts, whose service stories helped shape her childhood.

"My grandma and my grandpa, they were like my parents," Malm said. "They're truly the whole reason I think I'm here today, the background to my spirituality … My grandpa meant the world to me."

Roberts, a World War II U.S. Army Air Forces flight engineer, died in 2018.

Malm vividly remembers the stories he told her.

"They were getting ready for a night flight, and he was the one that did the engine check," Malm recalled. "Something wasn't right with the engine. And he had told his captain that, 'I don't think this is ready to go up.' And the captain said, 'Well, we're going anyways.' So they did, and they were like 80 feet up in the air, and the engine caught fire. And so they put it out and tried to get (to) lower elevation to land the plane; they ended up landing the plane safely. But the captain looked at him after that and said, 'Reed, I will listen to you from here on out.'"

His uniform, which had been displayed in a frame for more than four decades, became one of the family's most treasured heirlooms.

"This uniform was in a frame for 40-plus years, so it's in pristine, beautiful condition," Malm said.

She said the uniform was passed down to one of Roberts' sons with the understanding that it would eventually return to her side of the family after he died. Repeated efforts to recover it were unsuccessful, she said.

"There was several attempts to get this uniform back with no success from my aunt, and it was just recently, as of maybe a month, month and a half ago, that we discovered that in the attempt to get it back, that it was thrifted … somewhere in the eastern Idaho Valley," Malm said.

Since then, Malm posted in groups online and contacted stores across Idaho and Utah in hopes she'll find it.

"We've searched army surplus stores, all the thrift stores, all the Goodwills, even right down to the Air Force to see if we could figure out his service number," she said. "I have to believe that if it's thrifted, that it's out there somewhere, and that somebody's seen it and put hands on it."

As she continues searching, she has turned to old photographs and journals. She found a poem that included the line, "Continue my heritage. I'm counting on you."

Malm said the discovery strengthened her resolve to keep looking.

"These stories are being forgotten, and their legacies are being forgotten," she said. "I think it's important for us to hold on to these items."

Anyone who believes they may have information about Roberts' World War II uniform can contact Malm by emailing her at healingwithjayne@aol.com or messaging her on Facebook, under Amber Adamson Malm, or on her Instagram, @amberjayne211.

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