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| Lt. John Reeve and crew of the B-17 Rovin Ramona, lost on December 20, 1943. https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=70811666&PIpi=113166379 |
John Robert Reeve never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on July 17, 1917 in Utah. His parents were also both born in Utah. His mother died from the Great Influenza outbreak when John was only one year old. His father remarried and had a daughter with his new wife. His father worked as a plumber. By 1940 John had completed high school. He was living with his parents and worked selling plumbing fixtures.
He enlisted in the army on May 1, 1942. He was married at the time to his wife Ruth.
He went to flight school where he learned to fly B-17 Flying Fortresses. He became a second lieutenant and pilot in the 568th Bombardment Squad, 390th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force. The 390th BG arrived in England in August 1943.
Lt. Reeve was piloting the Rovin Ramona on his fourth combat mission on December 20, 1943. On that day 34 planes from the 390th BG were sent to bomb Bremen, Germany. His plane was hit by flak. It never returned to base and likely crashed in the North Sea. All onboard were lost, including Lt. Reeve.
His cenotaph grave is at the Salt Lake City Cemetery. His widow remarried after the war and died in 2010.
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!
To mark having over 100,000 visits to my project to honor the fallen of WW2 on their 100th birthdate, I created this video to share. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY
Join the public Facebook group WW2 Fallen 100
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