TAMPA, Fla. — A Tampa woman is making it her life’s mission to help uncover the remains of missing military members who she calls the “truly forgotten soldiers.”
Tonja Anderson-Dell’s relentless drive to find our grandfather’s remains was rooted in a family mystery.
“I was the grandchild who really wanted to find out what happened,” said Anderson-Dell.
U.S. Airman Isaac Anderson died when his military cargo plane crashed into an Alaskan glacier in 1952. Anderson-Dell says the government never searched for her grandfather’s remains, or the remains of the other 51 people on board, because they were killed during a “non-mission.”
“To me their country turned their backs on them when they don’t look for them because they’re what you call an operational loss,” said Anderson-Dell.
As ABC Action News previously reported , Anderson-Dell’s search for the truth paid off earlier this year. Airman Anderson’s remains were finally brought back home to Tampa.