WW2 Fallen 100: WW2 Fallen - B-25 radioman James Orechia

Friday, April 24, 2020

WW2 Fallen - B-25 radioman James Orechia

Tech Sergeant James Orechia was a B-25 radioman in the 321st Bombardment Group.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/97548620/james-raymond-orechia
https://ww2db.com/image.php?image_id=28487

James Raymond Orechia never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.

If you have enjoyed reading the stories of the WW2 fallen, Can you help write some stories? It's a big project. The more help, the better.

Announcing "The Stories Behind the Stars", see https://www.storiesbehindthestars.org.

This crowd-sourced national project has the goal of compiling stories of all 400,000+ of the US World War 2 fallen in one free-to-access central database.

Anyone visiting a war memorial or gravesite will be able to scan the name of the fallen with a smartphone and his story will appear on the phone.

James was born on April 24, 1920 in Lincoln, Massachusetts. His parents George and Mabel were both born in Canada. His father worked as a leather factory leather checker and later as a milk salesman. Still later he was a farmer. James had two younger brothers. By 1940 James had completed one year of high school and was working as a pasteurizer. He was still living with his parents. At some point he got married and his wife's name was Ann.

He was drafted into the army in June 1942. At some point he volunteered for the Army Air Forces. He eventually became a tech sergeant in the 446th Bombardment Squadron, 321st Bombardment Group, which was equipped with B-25 Mitchells. It was sent to the Mediterranean Theater where it became part of the Twelfth Air Force.

His findagrave.com memorial has a quite an extensive profile of Sgt. Orechia's service.

James was trained as a radio operator. By April 1944 his unit moved its base to Corsica. He earned the Air Medal during his time of service.

By May 14, 1944, Sgt. Orechia had completed all his required missions. On May 15, 1944 he decided to volunteer for one more mission on B-25 #42-32429 which had the nickname Flamingo. The target was the Orvieto Station Railroad Bridge. His plane made it back from the mission but it crashed on landing. The explosion killed all of the crew.

His grave is at Walnut Grove Cemetery in Danvers, Massachusetts. I don't know what happened to his widow.

Thank you Sgt. Orechia for your sacrifice. Let's Earn It for James.

Last year on this date I profiled Medal of Honor hero George Benjamin, 77th Infantry Division. You can read about George 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.

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Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100