Quest concluded: Boyhood home of WWII pilot found through poem

Elaine Mead, collection technician for the Floyd County Historical Museum, explains to the surviving relatives and descendants of Charles City WWII fighter pilot Loren E. Hintz as well as to interested visitors from Italy that she was able to track down the whereabouts of the farm where Hintz grew up by deciphering a poem written by published author and naturalist H. Clark Brown. Press photos by John Burbridge

Loren Hintz

Aristide Chiesa (right) shakes hands with LeRoy Rover at the end of Chiesa’s trip to America to find the boyhood home of fighter pilot Loren E. Hintz, who Chiesa witnessed crash to his death near his family’s farm in Italy near the end of the European stage of World War II. Rover lives on the acreage Hintz’s family lived on southeast of Charles City.

Gretchen Wronka-Hintz, daughter of Loren Hintz, and grandson Caspar Wronka take interest in the ponies that reside on the farm acreage of LeRoy Rover. The site was the former home of Loren Hintz.