All Brooklyn news
Neighborhood Map
Bay Ridge
  • Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights
Brooklyn Heights
  • Downtown, DUMBO
Carroll Gardens
  • Cobble Hill, Red Hook, Boerum Hill
Fort Greene
  • Clinton Hill, Crown Heights
North Brooklyn
  • Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick
Park Slope
  • Prospect Heights, Windsor Terrace, Greenwood Heights
GO Brooklyn
Dining Guide
Where to GO
Events calendar
Classifieds
The Brooklyn Wire
Not Just Nets
Police Blotter
Perspective
Parenting
Politics
Transit
Podcasts
Brooklyn Cyclones
Special sections
About The Paper
Mobile site
Twitter
Facebook
RSS Feeds

Kid solves mystery

By Harry Cheadle
for The Brooklyn Paper

Tools

Print this story
Facebook this
Tweet this
Digg this
Del.icio.us

What started out as a little Dutch boy’s hobby has turned into an international affair.

Sebastiaan Vonk, the 14-year-old whose quest to find the family of World War II hero Lawrence Shea was documented in The Brooklyn Paper in January, has finally linked up with Shea’s American descendents and gotten what he really craved: Shea’s story.

B&R Electronics

Born in 1923 in Brooklyn, Shea lived in the borough until he enlisted in the Army Air Force in 1943. The corporal was a towering figure at 6-foot-8, and fought numerous battles across Germany in the 80th Infantry Division.

On April 2, 1945, he was stationed near the industrial city of Kassel when a tank ambush caught his unit unaware. Shea fell — struck in the chest by an artilliary round.

Sixty years later, Vonk read some books on WWII that sparked his interest, and found out it was possible to adopt the grave of US soldiers buried in Europe.

He adopted Shea’s grave last year, but he did more than just place flowers. Vonk also reached out to The Paper in hopes of finding Shea’s family and discovering more about the hero’s life. It was a slim chance, but the inquiring Dutchman didn’t have many other options — most of the corporal’s records were destroyed in a 1973 fire.

After The Paper ran an article about Vonk, one of Shea’s nephews, now living in Pennsylvania, got in touch with him.

©2007 Community Newspaper Group

←Bay Ridge: Limp, Forrest, limp! Ridge man makes it that extra mile — or 70.
→Downtown: Murray’s poem walk

Reader Feedback

Enter your comment below

By submitting this comment, you agree to the following terms:

You agree that you, and not BrooklynPaper.com or its affiliates, are fully responsible for the content that you post. You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening or sexually-oriented material or any material that may violate applicable law; doing so may lead to the removal of your post and to your being permanently banned from posting to the site. You grant to BrooklynPaper.com the royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual and fully sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such content in whole or in part world-wide and to incorporate it in other works in any form, media or technology now known or later developed.

First name
Last name
Your neighborhood
Email address
Daytime phone

Your letter must be signed and include all of the information requested above. (Only your name and neighborhood are published with the letter.) Letters should be as brief as possible; while they may discuss any topic of interest to our readers, priority will be given to letters that relate to stories covered by The Brooklyn Paper.

Letters will be edited at the sole discretion of the editor, may be published in whole or part in any media, and upon publication become the property of The Brooklyn Paper. The earlier in the week you send your letter, the better.

Wedding Guide
Pedulla Tile

Links