It was finally brought to light by independent researcher John Antkowiak. He, along with members of Heideman’s family and Copper Country veterans, was on hand for the rededication ceremony Friday at Lake View Cemetery — at Heideman’s final resting place, which now bears the marking of the Silver Star he earned on D-Day.

“This is a really special mission to be told properly,” Antkowiak said. “So that’s what I’ve been trying to do.”

Heideman, a Calumet native who served in the Navy Reserve, received a Silver Star for his work commanding the eastern landing zone contingent of the Special Engineer Task Force (SETF). The Army-Navy joint initiative worked to clear German mines and obstacles off Omaha Beach for waves of landing craft. Lawrence commanded 11 Naval Combat Demolition Units, totaling about 130 people.

Coming ashore in the first minutes of the invasion with the Army’s 146th Engineer Combat Battalion, they took heavy losses, Antkowiak wrote.

Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Jim Mattson of the Marine Corps League Keweenaw Detachment No. 1016 hands a flag to Dan Juntilla, a relative of Lt. Lawrence Heideman, during a rededication ceremony Friday.

“Despite this, six of the planned eight 50-yard lanes on Omaha Beach were cleared before the incoming tide suspended the effort …although not necessarily in their planned locations,” he wrote. “In spite of this and many other deviations from the plan, their work saved countless lives and military resources, inestimably contributing to the success of the invasion.”

After serving stateside, Heideman was ordered back to Europe in February 1945 for work in bomb disposal and technical interrogation. He was on a flight from Scotland to Paris when it crashed for unknown reasons on its final approach, killing Heideman and 15 others, including a USO entertainment group.

The Navy then prepared a summary of Heideman’s service for his family. It filed a separate addition in December 1946, rescinding the Bronze Star and awarding him a Silver Star, the third-highest combat decoration.

His family applied for a military headstone through the Veterans Administration in 1949. The check found the initial service report, but not the addendum, Antkowiak wrote. So for 70 years, Heideman had laid under a Bronze Star.

The road to changing that began with a plastic model. Antkowiak had been interested in World War Two since childhood. But while German models were plentiful, there hadn’t been any American or British varieties issued since the 1950s, Antkowiak said. The drought ended in the early 2000s with the Landing Craft Mechanized 3, which was used to carry tanks and troops.

Antkowiak knew two things. First, he had to buy it. Second, he needed to learn more about it.

“I decided that the model I was building was going to show some engineers already working on the beach, exactly the way it was, and also fill this boat with engineers,” he said. “This was one of only two boats, and one of them was Lawrence’s.”

He spent three years piecing together the history; there were Army and Navy histories, each understandably dealing more with their branch.

After putting the word out, Antkowiak has had at least 18 relatives of task force members looking to know more.

“It’s a pretty powerful thing when you hear stories about people who say, ‘When we lost my uncle on Normandy beach, my grandfather never ate German chocolate cake again,'” he said.

Antkowiak was surprised to find one of the reasons Heideman was likely picked for his D-Day role. After volunteering to sail back with a Finnish cargo vessel that was bringing iron back from America, he was stranded in Helsinki at the start of the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union. He joined the Finnish-American Legion as a dispatch runner, becoming one of the first Americans to volunteer during World War II.

That story also impressed Dan Junttila, whose mother was Heideman’s niece. He had shared what he knew with Gene LaRochelle, a Houghton County Veterans Affairs board member who helped provide information.

“I knew there was much more to the story years ago, and I had no idea Gene was going to take it as far as he did,” he said. “And I’m so pleased that he did. I’m so pleased that the stories I heard from the family were all true, but yet didn’t even scratch the surface of what happened.”

Heideman applied for the Naval Reserve after Pearl Harbor. He served in ordinance and bomb disposal before becoming one of the first NCDU members.

Members of the Copper Country Veterans Association provided a military detail for Friday’s ceremony.

“Imbued by a spirit of devotion, and inspired by a love of his native land, he gladly went forth and joined with sailors both young and old to preserve our heritage of freedom,” said Jim Mattson of the Marine Corps League Keweenaw Detachment No. 1016.

Heideman is the only member of the task force so far where Antkowiak has uncovered a higher medal. But the research isn’t done yet.

After the ceremony, Antkowiak planned to talk with LaRochelle about another person from the area who was on the special engineer task force.

Antkowiak’s research may also have led to the identification of a second eyewitness to the plane crash that killed Heideman, which could aid in the recovery of parts of the plane.

“They’ve asked me to take this old headstone and transfer it to a museum in France, so that they might have a record of it,” he said at the dedication ceremony. “So that story’s not over.”