11-259 M14 Picture of the Day - Henri-Chapelle Cemetery, Belgium

[Mark in Rochester]

World War II MIAs recovered in Germany

Honor guard members from Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, give a 21-gun salute during a rosette-placing ceremony Feb. 20 at the Henri-Chapelle Cemetery and Memorial in Belgium. The event honored the nine Airmen of the McMurray Crew in World War II, who flew a B-24 bomber and were missing in action until remains were found in a field southwest of Berlin in 2002. (U.S. Air Force photo/2nd Lt. Kathleen Polesnak)





1. First Lt. David McMurray of Melrose, Mass., was the plane's pilot. He flew sub patrols as a co-pilot out of Langley, Va., and was promoted to pilot at Alamogordo, N.M. He piloted 15 missions over Europe. His first bomber was shot down over France on June 15, 1944, and his second one went down over Germany less than a month later. His name and those of his crew members are inscribed on the "Wall of the Missing" in Henri-Chapelle, Belgium.



2. Second Lt. Millard Wells Jr. of Paris, Ky., was the plane's co-pilot. Six weeks before Wells died, his wife gave birth to a son, Wayne. Wells wrote his son a letter, which Wayne still has. "He addressed the letter to me, and just told me to take care of my mother," Wayne told the Lexington Herald-Leader. "He was a romantic kid. He was only 21 years old when he died. It's hard to think of your father as a kid, but he never got beyond that."

3. First Lt. Raymond Pascual of Houston, Texas, was originally from Brooklyn, N.Y. He died just months before his wife gave birth to their only child, Raymond Pascual Jr. "I wish I had known him," Pascual Jr. told the Houston Chronicle. A few photographs and stories told by his mother and grandmother are all he knows of his father, a 28-year-old bombardier at the time of his death. "He was a good man, my mom told me," Pascual Jr. told the Chronicle.

4. Tech Sgt. Leonard Ray grew up on a farm near Upper Falls, Md., and quit school to enlist in the Maryland National Guard. He patrolled the East Coast for German submarines before going to England. He was 22 and the plane's engineer when he died. He was buried last October in Joppa, Md., in front of a headstone his father purchased just weeks after he disappeared. "He's at rest now, and at home," his sister told the Baltimore Sun.

5. Tech. Sgt. Hyman Stiglitz was born in Lithuania in 1919. His family lived in Cuba for 10 years before settling in Boston. Stiglitz, an accomplished violinist, was a 25-year-old radio operator when he died. He was remembered as an excellent dancer and a quiet person who kept mostly to himself. Stiglitz was buried in December 2007 in Tucson in the same plot as his parents "to symbolically reunite them," his nephew told the Boston Globe.

6. Staff Sgt. Robert Cotey was remembered as a rebel growing up in Vergennes, Vt. "When he was a teenager, he had an Indian motorcycle and tried to ride down the hiking road at Mount Philo," his nephew told the Burlington Free Press. "He broke his leg and had a bad limp after that." No remains were recovered of Cotey, the plane's turret gunner. His death was confirmed by discovery of his dog tags and the knowledge he was on the plane.


7. Staff Sgt. Francis Larrivee of Laconia, N.H., enlisted in the Army Air Corps on Jan. 19, 1942, and was a right waist gunner. He married and had a daughter, Judith, who was three months old when he disappeared. "I always thought he would come home," she told the Manchester Union Leader. "I always thought as a child he would knock on our door." Her mother remarried and little was said of her father. "Now, finally, there is closure," Judith said.

8. Staff Sgt. Robert Flood of Neelyton, Pa., was remembered as quiet and bright. He graduated from high school in 1941 and worked at the Letterkenny Army Depot near Chambersburg before entering the military in 1944. A 22-year-old turret gunner when he died, Flood was buried last October in Path Valley, Pa. "We are so thankful he was finally brought home," a cousin told whptv.com. An 84-year-old brother survives him.

9. Staff Sgt. Walter Schlosser lived in Detroit as a child and moved to Lake City, Mich., with his mother, Hazel, and sister, Babe, and brother, Robert, when his mother separated from his father, Otto. His mother worked for a man named Walter Proctor, and Schlosser entered the Army Air Corps while living in Lake City. He was a left-wing waist gunner on B-24J's with the Eighth Air Force. No family members remain in the Lake City area.




Henri-Chapelle Cemetery, Belgium
Date taken: November 1946
Photographer: Ralph Morse

Information

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[Dangerousdan]

Thanks, for the information and photos.

[TerryS]

Only the Air Force would call three volleys fired by seven men a 21 gun salute !