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| B-24 radio operator Hebert McGuffin served in the 703rd Bombardment Squadron led by Hollywood star James Stewart. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/93347225 |
Herbert L. McGuffin never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on September 23, 1918 in Virginia. His parents Robert and Florence were born in Virginia and West Virginia, respectively. His father worked as a plumber. His mother died in 1928 from cancer. Herbert had two older brothers, one older sister and one younger sister.
After attending one year of college and working as an insurance clerk, Herbert joined the Army Air Forces in August 1942. He became a radio operator in the 703rd Bombardment Squadron, 445th Bombardment Group, which was equipped with B-24 Liberators.
On November 14, 1943 Sgt. McGuffin's plane, Sunflower Sue was en route from Puerto Rico to British Guiana as the 703rd BS staged to deploy to England. It sent out one short Mayday, but was never heard from after that. It probably went down due to fuel transfer problems.
The commander of the squadron, Captain James Stewart (yes the Hollywood Jimmy Stewart) had to make the hard decision to fly on after reports of a U-boat in the area discouraged a sea search. He had the unenviable duty to write 14 letters home to inform the next of kins of their loss.
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| https://robertmatzen.com/2015/09/26/dreams-and-nightmares/ |
Sgt. McGuffin's cenotaph grave is at Warm Springs Cemetery in Warm Springs, Virginia.
Last year on this date I profiled Doolittle raider Edwin Bain. You can read about Edwin 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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