WW2 Fallen - Air Medal hero and C-47 radioman Harlan Sandlin

Staff Sergeant Harlan Sandlin was a C-47 radioman in the 316th Troop Carrier Group.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7754963/harlan-sandlin
http://www.americanairmuseum.com/unit/266 

Harlan Sandlin 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.

Harlan was born on April 25, 1920 in Alabama. His parents Calvin and Pearlie were also both born in Alabama. His father worked as a farmer. Harlan had two older sisters, one younger brother, and one younger sister. By 1940 Harlan had completed four years of high school and was working on the family farm. He attended Jacksonville State Teachers College for 1 1/2 years.

He was drafted into the army in April 1942. He became a staff sergeant and radio operator in the 44th Troop Carrier Squadron, 316th Troop Carrier Group which operated C-47 Skytrains from North Africa to England. He began flying missions while the Americans were fighting in North Africa. He earned the Air Medal for his service during the invasion of Sicily and Italy. The 316th TCG was sent to England in February 1944 to prepared for the invasion of France. 

Sgt Sandlin was killed on the night of May 12, 1944 in a midair airplane collision between his C-47 #42-108877 and another C-47 in the skies over Turves and Benwick, England.

His grave is at Addington Chapel United Methodist Church Cemetery in Cold Springs, Alabama.

Thank you Sgt. Sandlin for your sacrifice. Let's Earn It for Darlin.

UPDATE: G. H. Combs from the Fans of the C-47 Skytrain Facebook page shared this link with more information.  Also see this related Facebook page recommended by Dax Bond.

Last year on this date I profiled Pearl Harbor fallen William Durham, USS Arizona. You can read about William 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