{"id":516974,"date":"2026-01-15T03:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T03:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/516974\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T03:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T03:19:10","slug":"a-belgian-man-spends-time-caring-for-a-jacksonville-wwii-soldiers-grave-now-he-wants-to-connect-with-their-relatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/516974\/","title":{"rendered":"A Belgian man spends time caring for a Jacksonville WWII soldier\u2019s grave. Now, he wants to connect with their relatives"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. <\/strong> \u2013 A Belgian man is searching for the family of a soldier connected to Jacksonville.<\/p>\n

Dieter Joosen, who lives in Belgium, is volunteering through an adopt-a-grave program to care for the grave of Jerry Chadwick.<\/p>\n

Jerry Chadwick was killed in combat on Dec. 19, 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge.<\/p>\n

RELATED: <\/b>Once thought of as forgotten, a cemetery for African-American World War II veterans is finally receiving recognition<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI want to bring him back alive, so to speak,\u201d said Dieter of his mission.<\/p>\n

Dieter calls himself an amateur historian with a strong interest in World War II. He says many Americans who died in combat are buried in Belgium. Through the American Overseas Memorial Day Association, he was assigned to care for Jerry Chadwick\u2019s grave.<\/p>\n

Jerry Chadwick was killed in combat on Dec. 19, 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge. (Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

So far, Dieter has uncovered more about Jerry\u2019s role in the war.<\/p>\n

\u201cEngineers were responsible for the critical and dangerous tasks, clearing obstacles from mines. Um, the buildings and destroying bridges. I mean the removal of mines,\u201d Dieter explained.<\/p>\n

Dieter has also tried to contact Jerry\u2019s family. He found people he believes are relatives and sent messages through Facebook, but has not received a response.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s possible they don\u2019t want to have contact. And that\u2019s fine. I don\u2019t need. I don\u2019t do this for financial reasons or anything like that. I just want to know the story and make it personal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

News4JAX also attempted to find relatives. <\/p>\n

While phone numbers were difficult to locate, a number for a distant relative was found but turned out to be invalid.<\/p>\n

If you are related to Jerry Chadwick and want to connect with Dieter, email Ariel Schiller at aschiller@wjxt.com<\/a> for assistance.<\/p>\n

When asked what message he would share with Jerry\u2019s family, Dieter said, \u201cWell, I think I just want to say… Myself and I don\u2019t speak for myself only, but for the Belgian people, we didn\u2019t forget what your family and what all the Americans did for our freedom, and I think that\u2019s the most important message.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A Belgian man is searching for the family of a soldier connected to Jacksonville. Dieter…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":516975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,718,3188,723,7310,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,2512,13967],"class_list":{"0":"post-516974","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-community","10":"tag-fl","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-jacksonville","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa","19":"tag-veterans","20":"tag-wwii"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115896959795888838","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}