By Cynthia Grau/WJEZ News

LaSalle County Sheriff, Tom Templeton, made a very special delivery to the Livingston County War Museum-Dal Estes Education Center Wednesday.

A World War II Japanese machine gun, brought back to the US by John Sullivan and friends, is now part of a new museum exhibit.

Sullivan’s daughter, Jane Sullivan Depaoli, said she grew up with the gun in plain sight in her house and the day it was taken out of the house by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was a sad day. Believing the gun would have to be destroyed shattered the family.

That changed when Templeton kept the gun safe in his arsenal and made contact with museum officials. Through the two groups working together, the gun, along with many of Sullivan’s medals and other Iwo Jima artifacts, will be on display at the museum.