WW2 Fallen - B-24 navigator Gordon Weaver

B-24 navigator Gordon Weaver served with the 460th Bombardment Group in Italy.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/88051152/gordon-l-weaver
https://www.worldwarphotos.info/gallery/usa/aircrafts-2-3/b-24-liberator/b-24-460-bomb-group/

Gordon L. Weaver 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.

Gordon was born on March 21, 1920 in Olean, New York. His parents Lloyd and Sarah were also both born in New York. His father worked as a rubber factory tire builder and later as an oil refinery laborer. Gordon had one older brother. By 1940 Gordon had completed four years of high school where he was a star football player. He was still living with his parents. Later he attended Alfred University and worked for Bell Aircraft. His father died in November 1941.

Gordon enlisted in the army in September 1942. He started off in the infantry but volunteered for the Army Air Forces. He became a second lieutenant and B-24 navigator in the 760th Bombardment Squadron, 460th Bombardment Group which was sent to Spanzolla, Italy in January 1944. It did not fly combat missions until March, but the bombers were still getting regular flying time.

On February 19, 1944 Lt. Weaver was the navigator on B-24 41-29339. The plane crashed in Acerenza, Italy due to bad weather. I don't know if any others in the crew survived, but Lt. Weaver was killed.

His grave is at Pleasant Valley Cemetery in Olean, New York.

Thank you Lt. Weaver for your sacrifice. Let's Earn It for Gordon.

Last year on this date I profiled B-26 pilot James Sweeney. You can read about James 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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WW2 Fallen 100 is supported by

The Greatest GENERATIONS Foundation

“Where Every Day is Memorial Day”

http://www.tggf.org