Search On For Pilot's Relatives To Pass On Service Medals

DENVER (CBS4) - In an aircraft salvage yard in northeast Denver a military pilot's story has recently been pieced together.

Earl Brooks Jr.'s story dates back to the 1930s and yet nobody related to him has been able to hear it. A nationwide search has turned up no relatives.

Those who discovered Brooks Jr.'s story wanted to share it with CBS4 so that someone might come forward and say, "That was my grandfather," or "great uncle."

The aircraft salvage yard near the old Stapleton airport is a history buff's dream.

"Something fell out, rolled under. I bent down and picked it up and found the medals," Susan Bayley said.

The salvage yard was just sold, but before Susan and Charles Bayley turn the old plane relics over to new owners they are attempting to find somebody related to Brooks Jr.

"We found a fairly significant amount of personal belongings for an individual, Earl Brooks Jr.," Charles Bayley said.

A scrapbook, a photo album and old time boxing gloves help tell a riveting story about a military pilot named Brooks Jr.

"Probably very likely a naval aviator who won a boxing tournament in Cavite, Philippines in 1936-37," Charles Bayley said. "He was in China in 1937, in a battle in China."

Old newspaper clippings suggest his boxing name was "Tough Brooks." There are medals and some risqué old pictures of female friends.

"He's a long way from home, I guess," Charles Bayley said of the risqué photos.

The Bayleys don't want money; they just want to keep the rich military mementoes in the Earl Brooks Jr. family. That is if they can find his descendants.

"I think there's a family who doesn't know about their ancestors, and that's what we want to do, we want to get them back together," Susan Bayley said.

In a salvage yard of planes that used to travel the world the keepers of the Brooks Jr. saga are searching the world for someone, somewhere who knew the man and would surely love to have his belongings close by.

Since it all was found in Denver the Bayleys think there might be a Colorado connection.

Anybody who knows Earl Brooks Jr. should contact CBS4's Suzanne McCarroll.