Dan O'Sullivan found WWII dog tags belonging to Benjamin Cox

That was in 2006 and for the next 14 years, Mr O'Sullivan, 49, now an Aspen Medical paramedic, would do everything he could to track down the mystery soldier's family.

First, he went to the American embassy in Canberra for assistance. They asked him to hand the dog tags back but Mr O'Sullivan said he couldn't do that.

"They told me it was the property of the United States and told me to hand them back, I kindly rejected and said that I would go about locating the family by myself," he said.

For the next 14 years he would do everything he could think of to track down the soldier's family.

"I did internet searches, sent emails to people that had the surname in the area that he was from, but I had no luck," Mr O'Sullivan said.

It wasn't until he got in touch with a veteran community in Maine that he got a breakthrough.

An email from Georgetown appeared in Mr O'Sullivan's inbox. The sender was Eunice Cox, the wife of the late Peter Cox, who was Benjamin Cox's nephew.

Breaking down in tears during a phone interview, Mr O'Sullivan said that moment was emotional for him because the mystery soldier had been a part of his life.

"I still get emotional about it because it means a lot to finally have these dog tags returned to their family after 80 years and know I finally have the opportunity to return them home," he said.

Benjamin Cox, the fallen soldier in the Solomon Islands, was born on March 20, 1916, to Russian-Jewish immigrants, who lived in Portland's Bayside neighbourhood.

With the outbreak of World War II, Lieutenant Cox enlisted in the US army and on his 28^th birthday he found himself in battle with the Japanese in Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands.

Lieutenant Cox was in command of a reinforced platoon engaged in a counterattack against the enemy. His platoon was met with resistance as they advanced and he was hit by a mortar fragment and forced to take cover in view of intense rifle fire.

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In a letter to his family, Major General O.W Griswold described what happened.

"A member of his command was seriously injured and he was seen to rise to his hands and knees when he was hit by a burst of machine gun fire. He was killed instantly," he wrote.

News of Lieutenant Cox's death reached as high as the desk of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who wrote in a condolence letter to Ben's mother: "I realize full well the grief that is in your mother's heart as you mourn the loss of your loved and loving son."

He was laid to rest in Portland, but his dog tag remained behind.

Three quarters of a century later, Mr O'Sullivan, of Jerrabomberra, would find the corroded dog tag in a Honiara market after it was buried in a battlefield for decades.

Mr O'Sullivan will travel to the United States to return the dog tag back to the fallen soldiers family and visit Lieutenant Cox's grave site in Mount Sinai, Portland.