Dateline: HARRISONBURG, VirginiaGeoffrey Morley-Mower didn't know what to do with it at first.
The tattered leather schoolbook _ a surprise gift from a dying World War II buddy _ contained the furtive recollections of their Royal air force flight commander during the dog days of battle in North Africa.
His name was Lewis Fry "Molly" Malone, a fearless aviator who was shot down over Libya in October 1941. For 61 years, his diary has passed among a fraternity of survivors of the 451 Squadron Royal Australian air force.
Like his comrades before him, Morley-Mower had no idea if Malone had family or how to contact them. The book remained on his shelf for years.
But with the help of an amateur historian from California, Morley-Mower has finally been able to track down two of Malone's nephews. This week, he'll set out on a final mission for his late commander, returning the diary to England.
"I'm charmed to do this," said Morley-Mower, 84, now a literature professor at James Madison University. "Everybody liked him."
Malone, an athletic man with bright blue eyes, had a reputation for bravery _ or craziness. He was known for flying straight into anti-aircraft fire during reconnaissance runs _ stubbornly sticking to the flight plan when anyone else would have pulled up above the clouds.
"In battle, there are some people who don't have any nerves at all," Morley-Mower said. "They're madmen, really. They're the ones who win awards, the Congressional Medals of Honor.
"I went up with him once, and he flew over the most frightening display of anti-aircraft fire, and he didn't even alter his course. I took off _ I thought they were going to shoot me for deserting. But it was crazy to follow him."
Malone, like Morley-Mower was British and on loan to the Australian air force.
In 1988, Morley-Mower received the crumbling journal from a former pilot with the 451st named Ray Hudson, who had gotten it from another pilot.
"He told me 'I'm going to be dying soon and I want to hand it over to someone who will respect it.'" Morley-Mower said.
Morley-Mower used parts of Malone's journal in two war memoirs he has since written and published.
But it wasn't until he met Ray Duke that Morley-Mower learned that he could return the journal.
Duke, 46, a substitute teacher and World War II history buff from Vacaville, California, first contacted Morley-Mower after reading his memoirs two years ago.
"I said 'Why don't we try to find Malone's family?" Duke said. "Geoffrey wasn't exactly born in the Internet generation, so he wasn't exactly sure how we could do it."
Using the Internet, Duke located school officials at Cambridge, where war buddies thought Malone had gone to school. He later found records of Malone at Oxford, and then used school archives to track down Malone's records at an English boarding school.
"I called them and said, 'I'm looking for the relatives Malone, and there they were,'" Duke said.
Two of Malone's nephews, who are now in their 70s, also attended the same boarding school.
"They had thought he simply disappeared," Morley-Mower said. "They were extremely keen on hearing more about him."
On Aug. 8, Morley-Mower expects to meet the two nephews in the Royal Air Force Club in London, completing the diary's 61-year journey.
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