 |
| George Goodson was a crewman on an AT-23 target tug like the one pictured above. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/76733963/george-washington-goodson http://andyk00.wixsite.com/15-tow-sq-11th-usaaf/untitled?lightbox=imageosq |
George Washington Goodson, Jr. never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on January 3, 1919 in Dublin, Texas. His parents George and Georgia were born in Texas and Arkansas, respectively. His father worked as a farmer, but by the time the depression started he was working as a railroad laborer. Later he worked as a railroad section foreman. George had three older sisters, one younger sister, and one younger brother. By 1940 George had completed three years of high school and was working as a railroad section snipe while living with his parents. He married Betty Brown, who came to the marriage with one daughter.
He volunteered for the army on April 17, 1941. He was trained to be an airplane mechanic but found a way to be transferred to a enlisted man's position on B-26 Marauders. He reached the rank of staff sergeant.
On May 12, 1944 Sgt. Goodson was one of the crew in an AT-23B (A B-26 modified as a target tug for gunnery training) flying a training mission out of Laughlin Field in Del Rio, Texas. Despite the fact that his pilot had more than 6,500 hours of flight time, he collided into another AT-23B that was slightly below him on the same heading. The other plane exploded in midair. Sgt. Goodson's plane hit the ground relatively intact, but was destroyed by fire. The crews of both planes perished.
His grave is at Oakwood Cemetery in Waco, Texas.
Last year on this date I profiled P-40 pilot John Patterson. You can read about John 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