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News of the lost MUSTONEN FILE Reporters' notes by Mike O'Rourke and Renee Richardson, staff writers.
During World War II, the Nov. 20, 1942 news that Leo Mustonen was missing was a small brief on a page full of military news.
The Dispatch headline stated, "Brainerd cadet said missing in Army airplane."
The new brief stated:
"L.K. Mustonen, 22, Brainerd, an advanced air force flying cadet in the United States Army, is one of a crew of a training plane reported last night as missing from Mather Field, California.
"The plane, officers at Sacramento, Cal. said, was in flight from Sacramento to Corning, Cal. The plane was piloted by Lt. W. R. Gamber.
"Cadet Mustonen is a son of Mr. and Mrs. Arvid Mustonen, 1220 East Maple."
The Brainerd Dispatch stories on Mustonen are on the Dispatch Web site at www.brainerddispatch.com.
The missing cadet was the subject of a banner front story when his plane's wreckage was discovered in 1947, five years after it was reported missing.
Finnish ties
Leo Mustonen's father Arvid was born June 12, 1889, in Finland. He was a resident of Brainerd for 37 years and retired as a carman at the Northern Pacific shops in Brainerd about two years before his death.
Dispatch reports of the day said Arvid Mustonen died suddenly at age 64 at his 1220 Maple St. home on Dec. 3, 1958. The Dispatch reported Arvid Mustonen married Anna Raiski in Cloquet in 1918.
World interest
Tomi Hinkkanen, a Finnish journalist, came to Brainerd from California to cover Leo Mustonen's story. Hinkkanen is covering the event for a magazine piece and for Finnish television for a program called "Rolling Stones."
Hinkkanen drove to Brainerd from Minneapolis and said it was easy to understand the strong Finnish immigration here as the land could have been outside Helsinki, Finland. If you blindfolded a Finn and brought them here, Hinkkanen said they wouldn't know the difference between Minnesota and Finland.
A small group of family members and friends listened as Hinkkanen interviewed Leo Mustonen's first cousin, Lauri Mustonen, 87, in Finnish at the Nelson-Doran Funeral Home Thursday night. Lauri Mustonen and his wife Marliss came from Texas for the services.
The Mustonen story has sparked keen interest in Finland.
In explaining the widespread interest in the story, Hinkkanen said imagine a 22-year-old who goes missing now and isn't discovered until 2069.
"It's sort of like a time capsule like a trip to the past," he said. "In a way it seems like he's come back to life again."
Inspiring story
Lou Marin has been stationed with the Air Force in Minot, N.D., for 15 years. He first saw Leo Mustonen's story on CNN. An aircraft mechanic, Marin said he thought how close he was to the people that fly the planes he works on and what it would be like to have one take off and never come back.
"It affected me," Marin said of the story.
He wrote a poem about Leo Mustonen called "Leo Mustonen Earns his Angel Wings." He took some of the information he learned about Leo's life and mingled them with images he had as a serviceman. Marin posted the poem on the Internet. He said Leo's nieces in Florida say the poem when doing a Google search on their uncle. They contacted him and asked him to read the poem at the funeral service.
Paying respects
A Marine veteran and his fiancee, who first met in 1967 when he led the honor guard at her son's funeral, were among those who paid their respects to Leo Mustonen at Thursday night's visitation.
Arleigh R. Marheine, a member of the Marine Corps League, and June Jusiel, both of Nisswa, said they initially met when her son died in the Vietnam War. Years later, when they were both single, they renewed their friendship in 2001. They plan to marry this summer.
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