Army veteran Danny Keay holds a dog tag belonging to Pfc. DeVerl Stevens, who was killed in Simmerath, Germany, on Dec. 16, 1944. (Danny Keay)
Susan Trammell never knew her father, Army Pfc. DeVerl Stevens, an Idahoan who was just 19 when he was killed fighting the Nazis in western Germany in December 1944.
Stevens grew up in the tiny town of Montpelier, in Idaho’s southeastern corner near the borders with Wyoming and Utah. He married his sweetheart Juley “De” Dunn in December 1943 and shipped out a month later.
Trammell, 79, was born less than two months after her father’s death. Over the years, relatives told her that she resembled her father and that they both had the same small hands. She also inherited his musical ability, but besides a few medals and personal mementos, his life and legacy largely remained elusive.
“I know that he was kind. Other than that, I really don’t know a whole lot about him,” Trammell said. “You don’t leave much of a footprint when you’re only 20 years old.”
Now, however, she has something else to remember him by, thanks to retired U.S. soldier Danny Keay, who orchestrated the return of one of her father’s dog tags from the battlefield.
A dog tag belonging to Army Pfc. DeVerl Stevens, who was killed in Simmerath, Germany, on Dec. 16, 1944, is now in the possession of the daughter he never knew, 79 years after his death. (Danny Keay)
Army Pfc. DeVerl Stevens was killed in Simmerath, Germany, on Dec. 16, 1944. (Danny Keay)
Susan Trammell holds a photo of her father, Army Pfc. DeVerl Stevens, outside her Texas home on May 24, 2024. Her father died in Germany shortly before she was born. (Susan Trammell)
A retired U.S. Army sergeant first class, Keay was gifted the tag over a decade ago in a bag of military paraphernalia purchased at a flea market at NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen, about 30 miles north of the town where Stevens died, he said from his home in South Korea.
Thinking that the majority of the items were from the postwar period, the history enthusiast put the bag on a shelf, where it stayed until the summer of 2021, when Keay started cleaning house prior to moving to South Korea.
Keay is now a conflict archaeologist who looks for missing service members on past battlefields. On inspection of Stevens’ dog tag, he immediately knew what he had.
“There is corrosion on it, but it’s not coming off,” he said. “Blood eats into the metal and leaves this pitting, and it’s identical (to other items I’ve studied).”
According to Stevens’ personnel file provided by Keay, he was assigned to the 309th Infantry Regiment and died from a chest wound in Simmerath on Dec. 16, 1944. His body was repatriated to his hometown in 1947.
His death came the same day the Germans launched their Ardennes offensive, referred to as the Battle of the Bulge, just south of his position along the Belgian border.
Keay, 59, believes that Stevens was wearing the tag when he was wounded. He wanted to return it but had trouble finding relatives.
Ryan Kelly, a friend and amateur genealogist from Utah, offered to help after Keay posted about the tag on Facebook in July.
Kelly looked up Stevens’ name on FamilySearch.org, a genealogy site maintained by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There, he found Trammell, who also happens to be a member of the church.
Keay was studying in England at the time, but he kept in touch with Trammell until he could return home and ship the tag, which arrived at her home in Texas on Thursday.
Trammell is waiting for local media to document her opening the package over the holiday weekend, Keay said Friday.
With the return of Stevens’ dog tag coming in the run-up to Memorial Day, Trammell believes it is divine intervention.
“It’s going to be exciting to see it and have it in my own little hand,” she said.
