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| Captain Leland Griffith was the Operations Officer for the 755th Bombardment Squadron. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/34722685/leland-glenwood-griffith https://www.458bg.com/captgriffith |
Leland Glenwood Griffith never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on October 30, 1919 in California. His parents Erda and Lucy were born in Missouri and Alabama, respectively. His father worked as a railroad telegraph operator and later as a cigar store salesman. Still later he worked as a foreman doing government work. Glen had two older brothers. By 1940 Glen's parents had divorced and Glen was living with his mother. He had completed one year of college and was working for a newspaper managing its paper route boys. He married Mildred Chesterman and they had one daughter.
He volunteered for the Army Air Forces on March 21, 1942. He was trained to fly B-24 Liberators. He eventually became a captain and the Operations Officer for the 755th Bombardment Squadron, 458th Bombardment Group. The 458th BG arrived in Horsham St. Faith, England in February 1944.
Captain Griffith undertook his thirteenth and final mission on September 1, 1944. He was the pilot of the B-24 42-51134 nicknamed Liberty Belle. The target that day was an ammunition dump near Pfaffenhoffen, Germany. Captain Griffith's plane crashed shortly after take off. The investigation concluded that it was likely caused by being caught in the prop wash of another bomber. All onboard were killed.
There is a webpage with many details about Captain Griffith at https://www.458bg.com/captgriffith.
His grave is at Union Cemetery in Bakersfield, California. I don't know what happened this widow or daughter.
Last year on this date I profiled the first Medal of Honor hero of WW2, Alexander Nininger, Philippines Scouts. You can read about Alexander and Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Bob Feller 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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