 |
| Major Emmett Gravitt served with the 5th Photo Recon Group with CO Col. Leon Gray (shown here) in Italy. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/105693613/emmett-charles-gravitt http://www.15thaf.org/5th_Photo_Recon/ |
Emmett Charles Gravitt never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on June 12, 1918 in Ohio. His parents George and Alice were also both born in Ohio. His father worked as a farm laborer on his father-in-law's farm and later as a garage laborer. Still later he was a machinist. Alice died in 1931. Emmett had two younger sisters. By 1940 Emmitt had completed one year of college and was working as a file clerk while living at home with his father and sisters. He married Dorthadele Greathouse and they had one son.
He enlisted in the army on October 12, 1940 and volunteered for the Army Air Forces. He rose to the rank of major in the 15th Photo Reconnaissance Squadron, 5th Photo Reconnaissance Group, 12th Air Force. Major Gravitt was trained to fly P-38 Lightnings. He survived crashing an O-47B at MacDill Field in Florida in January 1942. His unit was sent to the Mediterranean Theater and provided recon support for the Allies in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy.
Major Gravitt was flying a mission over Mairensee am Neuwalde, Austria on April 12, 1944 and he failed to return to base. He was reported missing in action.
His grave is at West Chester Cemetery in West Chester, Ohio. His widow remarried and died in 2010. I don't know what happened to his son.
Last year on this date I profiled James Garris, 9th Infantry Division. You can read about James here.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100
No comments:
Post a Comment