ORANGE COUNTY, Va. (CBS19 NEWS) -- A random find by an artist led to the son of a World War II veteran getting back something that belonged to his father.

The dog tag of a Marine veteran who served in the Battle of Okinawa in Japan has been returned to the family whose name it bears.

Somehow, it ended up in the possession of a Louisa County resident, but no one is really sure how.

"Your guess is as good as mine," said Amos Yount, whose father fought in WWII in the Pacific.

The story started earlier this week, when an artist was rummaging through items her grandfather purchased at yard sales over the years. She was looking for something to use in her art when she found the dog tag with the name "Amos V. Yount."

Next comes Rusty McGuire, a colonel in the Virginia National Guard and the Commonwealth's Attorney for Louisa County, who was in court this week when she came to talk to him.

"And asked me if I could find the veteran who it belonged to or a descendant. Little did I know, it would bring me to Orange County, Virginia," said McGuire.

Yount passed away in 1989, but he is survived by his 81-year-old son. His name is also Amos Yount.

"Mr. Yount, I am happy to present to you your father's dog tag," said McGuire as he handed it to Amos.

Yount's father volunteered for the war effort in December 1943 and ended up in combat in 1944 in the Pacific Theater. He fought in the Battle of Tinian, an important battle that established the airbase where the Enola Gay eventually took off to drop the atomic bomb. Then he went on to the Battle of Okinawa, removing the last barrier standing between U.S. forces and Japan.

It was one of the deadliest battles of the war, killing more than 12,000 Americans.

But Yount survived and made it back stateside.

Amos says his father told him some of his war stories.

"When he was going to the war, he was on a ship and there was another ship over here on the other side of him and a kamikaze came around and came over the top of their ship and bam. Right into the other boat and blew up," he said.

But Amos also has memories of his father when he was home.

"He wasn't a big hunter, but I used to love squirrel hunting. Good eating," he said.

He now has the second of his father's two dog tags, among other items, to remind him of times like that.

"I just wish he'd be here, but you know. That's about all I could say,” he said.

"He has something that had his daddy's sweat on it, that something his daddy wore on Tinian Island when he fought for his life. Something he wore on Okinawa fighting for his life at the end of the war that ended and brought peace to the globe and that piece of history is now back in his family," said McGuire. "How could you not be happy about that?"

This is the first time the family has seen the dog tag since it disappeared.

This isn't the first time McGuire has done something like this. He also did something similar for another veteran's family in Tennessee.