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| Sgt. Oscar Walrod served in the 95th Bombardment Group. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/32592387/oscar-cyrus-walrod http://95thbg.org/j3migr/95thbg-aircraft/95th-b-17-s-1944 |
Oscar Cyrus "Woody" Walrod never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on November 19, 1918 in Iowa. His parents Earl and Tressie were also both born in Iowa. His father worked as a farmer. Woody had an older brother and sister and two younger brothers. His parents divorced in the early 1930s. His mother remarried and moved to Oregon. By 1940 Woody had completed eight years of schooling. He had moved away from home to Sioux City, Iowa where he worked as a laborer. Later he was a ranch hand in Oregon.
He enlisted in the Army Air Forces on September 22, 1941. He married Dorothy Deters in June 1943.
He became a Tech Sergeant in the 412th Bombardment Squadron, 95th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force, which was equipped with B-17s. He was a flight engineer / top turret gunner. The 95th BG starting flying missions from England in May 1943. Sgt. Walrod joined his unit some time later as a replacement.
On August 2, 1944 Sgt. Walrod took off from Horham, England in the B-17 I'll Get By on what was his scheduled final mission before qualifying to return home. It was tactical mission to France, normally considered a low risk milk run. The 95th BG lost just one plane that day - I'll Get By. Three of the crew survived as POWs but the other seven, including Sgt. Walrod were killed. His son was born four days later.
His grave is at Correctionville Cemetery in Correctionville, Iowa. His widow remarried and died in 2001. I don't know what happened to his son.
Last year on this date I profiled B-24 gunner Stanley Sabastenski. You can read about Stanley 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
Awesome tribute. Oscar was my Great Uncle.
ReplyDeleteWould you like to see Oscar's story added to the www.storiesbehindthestars.org project? Let me know at don@storiesbehindthestars.org.
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