The email from Covington resident Joe “Pete” Madding stimulated my curiosity. A handmade trench knife, lost in combat by an 82nd airborne paratrooper during the Battle of the Bulge who also came dangerously close to losing his leg, found its way back to Paris, TX in 1972 to a man who crafted the weapon 28 years beforehand. The narrative is as eerie as it is thought-provoking.