On March 6, 1944, fighter pilot Grant Turley was shot down over Germany. Known as “The Snowflake Storm,” Grant was Arizona’s first ace and had established himself as one of the most fearless pilots in the 8th Air Force.

I’m named after Grant Turley. He’s my great-uncle and my hero. Our family knew very little about Grant’s death until a military researcher contacted us in 2012 with news that he'd found the probable crash site. My wife and I traveled to Germany to search for answers. My ultimate goal was to recover pieces from Grant’s P-47 Thunderbolt that we could bring back to the States for my grandmother and Grant’s three other siblings.

Here’s the three-part series I wrote for KSL.com about our life-changing experience.