VERNON, CT (WFSB) - A Vernon couple is hoping to find the family of a Navy sailor, presumed to be missing in action during World War II.

They have something that belongs to him and want to return it.

“I looked each day for a letter from you. I’ll admit at first I did feel blue. When each day had proved the same, the mailman called but not my name ....”

Maureen and Paul Cincotta are reading the words of a navy sailor, a sailor they’ve never met, but feel like they may already know.

They’re reading out of a book, signed by John Ernest Kraus, 1930.

“So the first part of the book, it’s all about machines. Looks like homework,” says Maureen. “You get towards the back of the book and this is where all the poems and poetry start and there’s 33 of them. Some are really deep, some are really emotional, there are some that have humor in it.”

The Cincottas found the book while cleaning out Maureen’s father’s belongings.

He was also a Navy sailor, but has since passed away.

”If this is the guy we think it is, it would have been after his ship went down, that my father served in the Navy. I’m wondering if my dad came across it on some kind of naval property and said hey, look at this, this is awesome. We don’t know - we would like to find out,” says Maureen. “We found it Sunday and we totally stopped our day and sat at the table for hours, reading through it, googling, looking up anything we could find.

Our Google search found a John Ernest Kraus, Chief Machinist’s Mate in the Navy, declared missing in action, presumed to be dead in 1945.

But Paul Cincotta, a history teacher himself, believes he may have been on the USS Pecos, an oiler which went down in 1942.

”They were trying to get to Australia and they had rescued Navy personnel from another ship that had been sunk,” says Paul. “When the ship was attacked and sunk, over 400 sailors were lost. They were not able to save them. He was probably one of them. He was listed as missing in action.”

“That’s what we want to find out. If this book belongs to that actual Navy sailor who perished in 1942,” says Maureen.

Unanswered questions, the Cincottas hope can be answered with a little bit of help.

”We want to know who he is and if he has family, and if he does, we want to put this book and his poems back into his, the family’s hands,” says Maureen.

We did find a potential family member in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, but have not been able to get a hold of them.

The Cincottas say if no one comes forward to claim the book, they hope to give it to a Navy archive or museum.