A Brother's Keeper

Philip Maggart fulfills his 67-year-long mission to find and bring home the remains of his brother Charles, lost in World War II.

Philip Maggart was 11 when his hero, his older brother Charles, disappeared with his B-25 bomber crew on a routine attack in New Guinea during World War II. The family never knew what happened to him, leaving his father devastated and Philip’s life forever changed. Philip made it his mission to find Charles, and, 67 years later, he did. This beautifully produced video by NPPA award-winner Steve Rhodes follows Maggart’s quest from archival WWII-era images to the present, when he was able to bury his brother’s remains in Arlington National Cemetery.

Although this video uses many familiar images — young soldiers in black and white, lines of headstones, waving flags — the touching personal narrative by Phil Maggart about his “passion of a lifetime” to find his brother is what makes the story compelling. After compiling volumes of material and making hundreds of contacts, Maggart was able to locate the plane crash site where the State Department was able to recover Charles and his crew. We are told in the introduction that Arlington is “a place of honor, valor and remembrance,” and the story comes full circle there. In emotional vignettes, Maggart and family members of his brother’s crew finally get closure in a formal military ceremony.

This video was awarded first place in the 2010 National Press Photographers Association Best of TV Photojournalism contest, In-depth category

Length: 4:35

By Steve Rhodes, WTHR, Indianapolis, IN

VIEW: http://www.vimeo.com/9924442