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| Brothers Malcolm and Ronald Medlen were both B-25 airmen who died in WW2. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/80360170/malcolm-m_-medlen https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/80360250/ronald-medlen |
Malcolm Medlen never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on January 14, 1919 in Hugo, Oklahoma. His parents Claude and Martha were both born in Texas. His father worked as a laborer for a plumbing company and later a plumber. Malcolm had one younger brother. By 1940 Malcolm had completed four years of high school. He had been married and divorced and may have had a daughter. He found work as a mechanic.
He volunteered for the Army Air Forces on December 23, 1941. He was joining his younger brother Ronald who had volunteered for the then named Army Air Corps in September 1939. Malcolm became a staff sergeant and was assigned to the 491st Bombardment Squadron, 308th Bombardment Group, 5th Air Force which was equipped with B-25 Mitchells.
Sgt. Medlen married Mary Jane Vanderberg in 1943. They had one son.
His brother Staff Sergeant Ronald Medlen was killed on January 12, 1943 while flying in a B-25 out of Waterboro, South Carolina that crashed due to engine failure.
The 491st BS was first based in India, but was moved to China in January 1944 which was under the 14th Air Force. It focused on interdiction missions in China and French Indochina. It also bombed airfields and bridges.
Sadly, Sgt. Malcolm Medlen would also meet his demise in a B-25 when it was reported missing on April 8, 1944. Two years later he was still listed as missing.
His cenotaph(?) grave and his brother's grave are at Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Hugo, Oklahoma. His widow remarried after the war and died in 2014. I don't know what happened to his son.
ANDY ROONEY
Malcolm Medlen shares a birthday with the well known 60 Minutes commentator Andy Rooney. He was born in Albany, New York and attended Colgate University before he was drafted into the army in August 1941.
Rooney was assigned to be a war correspondent for the Army's Stars and Stripes newspaper. He flew on the second 8th Air Force mission over Germany. He was the first reporter to cross the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen. He also was one of the first correspondents to discover the Nazi concentration camps. He was awarded the Bronze Star. He wrote about his war experiences in his 1995 book My War.
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| https://civilianmilitaryintelligencegroup.com/10701/andy-rooney-war-correspondent-dies-at-92 https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Andy_Rooney |
After the war Rooney got a job as a writer for CBS. He is best know for his 60 Minutes commentaries that continued from 1979 to 2011. He died five weeks after retiring at age 92.
Last year on this date I profiled Silver Star hero John Lightsey, 81st Infantry Division. 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
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