Prayer is answered 61 years later

Ted Mogil's cherished prayer book traveled from Des Moines to the South Pacific in World War II.

Then it went missing for 61 years.

Mogil, a former Omahan, enlisted in the Marine Corps here in 1942. He received a pocket-size Hebrew prayer book from the Jewish Welfare Board when he traveled to Des Moines for his swearing-in ceremony.

That book stayed in his pocket during his three years of service, except when he took it out to pray. Mogil was the only Jewish man in his unit, and he carried the book for comfort and luck.

"It was my only tie to reality and home," Mogil, 85, recalled in a phone interview this week.

Mogil came home to Omaha in 1945. He married, and relocated to California with his wife in 1948. As he moved on from the war and into a career as a building contractor, he no longer constantly carried the book.

When the couple donated many of their belongings to Temple Israel before their move, the book was lost.

The synagogue holds regular book fairs, and the small prayer book was probably amid the piles for decades.

Until this year.

At one of those fairs this spring, the book caught the eye of 12-year-old Wil Beach of Harlan, Iowa.

Wil discovered a handwritten name and date on the inside cover: "Pvt. Teddy Mogil, Nov. 5, 1942."

Wil saw the inscription and decided, "We need to buy this book and find this guy," said his father, Ron Beach.

The boy did an Internet search. He found phone numbers for several men named Ted Mogil across the country. But it only took one phone call to find the book's owner, now living in Mercer Island, Wash.

When Wil first called, Mogil said, he thought the child on the other end of the phone was playing a prank.

But the boy's questions — Was he in the Marines? Did he serve in the South Pacific? — piqued his interest.

Yes, Mogil answered.

The next thing he heard: "Dad! Dad! I believe this is the man!"

Mogil said he had largely forgotten about the prayer book. He was shocked to learn that a boy from Iowa found it and wanted to return it.

"It came out of the blue," he said.

Wil, too, was surprised. He didn't expect to find the correct Ted Mogil so quickly.

"Someday I thought I'd be able to find him, but I didn't think I would on the first try," said Wil, who will be a seventh-grader at Harlan Community Middle School this fall.

Wil had learned about World War II from a family friend in Harlan who had been a prisoner of war.

Through that contact, the youngster realized that the prayer book could have been important to its owner, Ron Beach said.

Beach is proud of his son's efforts to return the book.

"He took it upon himself, when he saw the book and understood that it might be meaningful to somebody, to find the guy," Beach said.

Barry Mogil, Ted Mogil's son, said Wil's ability to recognize the book's significance impressed him, too. Barry Mogil served in combat in the Vietnam War.

"My dad and I have that connection," he said. "I know what he was feeling in having that talisman of luck."

• Contact the writer: 444-3152, emily.babay@owh.com