FORT KNOX, Ky. (WDRB) -- Arlin Kramer is used to firing up a Humvee, with a mission on his mind. His days as a soldier are in the past, but the days of old at Fort Knox still intrigue him.
"I'm a self described historian of Fort Knox," Kramer said.
When Kramer heard that Agnes Rahm, who used to live on the land the military owns now, was looking for a long lost family cemetery, he got in on the hunt to find it.
It's a big space to work with.
"106,000 acres, we are," he explained.
Time also has a way of changing the land. Growing trees, grass, and weeds complicate the simplest of searches.
"It is an extreme needle in a haystack," said Kramer.
It's why Rahm lost track of the cemetery in the first place. Still there were clues and memories.
"Her explanation was that you could see it from the porch (of her home)," Kramer explained.
It gave Kramer and his team a lead. The colors on the leaves would change and fall several more times.
"We've been looking for this, I think, maybe almost 20 years," said Kramer.
This year, in an area full of vegetation, there was a clumsy coincidence. One of the searchers literally stumbled upon a headstone. The years-long search was over.
Fort Knox put a fence and sign up, and grass inside, to protect the final resting places.
"Because the fence is up here, we won't lose the cemetery this time," Kramer said.
The trouble is, Agnes Rahm didn't live long enough to finally see the cemetery, but her grandson did.
"It was one of the last things that she asked of me, was to relocate the cemetery," explained her grandson, Tim Taylor.
He made the trip up from his Arkansas home. Pictures were snapped, and emotions were running high.
"I know that she knows that we found it," he said. "She was a very important person in my life, and she would be very excited."
Now, the people who were important to her are getting the respect and dignity they've always deserved.
"I'm so glad that we could find it for her," Kramer said.
He and his team were willing to go the distance it took to grant a final wish, and finally say "mission accomplished."
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