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| 2nd Lt. Gray Mashburn was a P-47 pilot in the 495th Fighter Trainer Group. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/111101383/gray-a_-mashburn https://www.worldwarphotos.info/gallery/usa/aircrafts-2-3/p47/p-47-thunderbolt-3t-v-44-19863-of-the-36th-fighter-group-in-flight/ |
Gray A. Mashburn, Jr. never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on March 22, 1920 in Nevada. His parents Arthur Gray Mashburn and Ida Lea were both born in Arkansas. His father worked as a lawyer and was Attorney General for the state of Nevada from 1931 to 1943. Gray had one older sister.
Gray's family story is a little complicated. His father and mother knew each other when they both worked at the Arkansas Deaf Mute Institute and married in 1905. They must have divorced in the next few years because in 1911 Arthur was living in Nevada and married Lillian Richard who was the mother of Gray's sister. The couple divorced and Arthur Gray married for the third time in 1919 to Ruby Frick. This is were the complication sets in. Gray Mashburn is shown as the son of both Ida Lea Mashburn and Ruby Frick Mashburn. Ida and Arthur Gray had been divorced for more than 10 years when Gary Jr. was born. Ida died in 1925. Most likely the younger Gray was the actual the son of Ida, and after she died, he moved in with his Arthur and Ruby.
By 1940 Gray had completed two years of college at the University of California. After completing college he attended one year of law school in California.
He enlisted in the Army Air Forces in February 1942. He became a second lieutenant and pilot in the 23rd Fighter Squadron, 36th Fighter Group which was equipped first with P-39s and P-40s, but it switched to P-47 Thunderbolts when it was deployed to England in April 1944.
Lt Mashburn was killed on May 5, 1944 when the P-47 he was flying crashed near Atcham, England. At the time of his crash he was part of the 495th Fighter Trainer Group.
His grave is at Mountain View Cemetery in Reno, Nevada.
WERNER KLEMPERER
A familiar face to 1960's TV viewers was born on the exact same day as Gary Mashburn. Werner Klemperer was born in Germany. His father was a noted conductor. Providentially the family migrated to the United States in 1935 - they were Jewish. They settled in Los Angelos were his father became the conductor of the Los Angelos Philharmonic Orchestra.
Werner had already began his acting career when World War II started. Werner joined the army and became part of the Special Services unit which was tasked with entertaining troops.
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| https://www.listal.com/werner-klemperer |
Last year on this date I profiled WW2 POW fallen Hubert Thornburg, USS Pope. You can read about Hubert 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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