Manhattan woman reunited with father’s World War II ID, found on NYC subway months after it went missing

Months after she lost it at a film screening last year, Manhattan resident Stephanie Carroll’s cherished heirloom — her father’s identification card as a World War II naval aviator — was returned to her on Friday via the MTA’s lost and found system.

“I lost this months ago, in the fall. I never thought I’d see it again,” Carroll said.

A production designer in the film industry, Carroll had brought the ID issued in 1943 to a Midtown showing of “Top Gun: Maverick” in October.

“He actually lived that life,” Carroll said of her father. “He trained pilots. He was very accomplished.”

“So I brought [the ID] to show friends.”

Cmdr. Robert Carroll’s service as a U.S. Navy pilot during World War II was the beginning of a long career in aviation that included 21 years of active and reserve military service.

Over that time, the elder Carroll flew humanitarian missions in the late 1940′s Berlin Airlift, which broke the Soviet blockade of West Berlin. He was also on active duty in the Korean War.

Carroll, a longtime Winchester, Mass., resident, also flew commercial planes as a pilot for Northeast Airlines and later for Delta Air Lines.

He died in 2015 at the age of 95, his daughter said.

Carroll said the ID went missing at some point during the October screening.

“I was devastated,” she said.

But months later, in May, her father’s ID somehow showed up at the Hoyt–Schermerhorn subway station in downtown Brooklyn.

Each station in the system allows riders to turn in found items, which end up at the MTA’s lost-and-found headquarters at Penn Station.

That’s where Robert Carroll’s ID ended up in the hands of lost-and-found clerk Veronica Santana.

“When it came across my desk, I had to [find a way to] return it,” said Santana, a native Brooklynite and self-described Army brat. “It was a mission.”

“This was a personal thing, being from a military family,” Santana added. “I couldn’t see this thrown by the wayside.”

“Two years ago, my brother, a Marine, died. I felt him in my ear, saying, ‘I know you’re going to do right — don’t disappoint me.’”

Santana said she called a slew of military facilities, looking for more information on the commander that could be used to find a family member.

“Fort Hamilton was a big help,” she said of the Brooklyn army base.

Finally, Santana said, she had narrowed down possible relatives of the commander when she found a social media post from Carroll, lamenting the loss of her father’s ID.

Soon after, Carroll had an email from the office of NYC Transit President Rich Davey, asking if the errant ID was hers.

Carroll hugged Santana on Friday, as she gave back the small ID card.

“I don’t know what to do to thank you,” Carroll told Santana.

Santana was modest.

“It was meant to be with you,” she said.