HOUSTON – Whether it was simply to commemorate something, or had been used for real action, it didn't take Donnie Jemison, of Houston, long to figure out that an ax he recently bought was something special.
"This was a treasure," Jemison said.
Jemison, a knife and weapons trader, was at his booth at Cole's Antique Village and Market in Pearland this weekend when he bought the ax from a 12-year-old who was looking for just enough money to buy a knife.
"He just told us that he needed $26 to buy whatever it was he wanted to buy," he said. "I figured I could get $35 for the ax."
After cleaning the ax just a bit, Jemison noticed an inscription.
"Full name. Class of 239," Jemison said. "It had the eagle with the trident in its claw. William Ryan Owens."
William Ryan Owens is a highly decorated Navy SEAL killed in combat in Yemen in January 2017. Owens served with the SEALs in Somalia and Afghanistan, as well.
Jemison, a Navy veteran himself who served during Vietnam, said he knew there was no way he could hold on to the ax or try to make a profit from it.
"This is not something that you would keep if you found it, if you knew who it belonged to," Jemison said.
After learning who Owens was and what the memento may have meant to the late SEAL, Jemison is trying to return the keepsake to Owens' loved ones.
"The guy was a hero. The family deserves it," Jemison said. "I don't know how it got through the cracks but it needs to go back to his brother."
Jemison said he has no idea how the child got possession of the ax, but he hopes he meets him again so he can inquire. Jemison made contact with Owens' brother in Florida and is in the process of trying to return the ax.
