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| Captain Irving Stringham was a B-24 pilot in the 465th Bombardment Group until his bomber was shot down over Munich (shown in photo above). https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/25151771/irving-ray-stringham https://www.flickr.com/photos/dougsheley/5267627002 |
Irving R. Stringham, Jr. never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
Irving was born on June 30, 1920 in San Diego, California. His parents Irving and Vera were both born in Utah. Sometime in the 1920s the family moved back to Utah. His father worked as a sheep stock raiser in Vernal, Utah. Irving had one older sister and one younger brother. By 1940 Irving was still living at home. He completed three years of college at Brigham Young University where he was drum major for the school band. He worked as a telegraph operator. While in college he earned a private pilot license.
He enlisted in the army in February 1942. He volunteered for the Army Air Force and was able to qualify as a bomber pilot. For two years he was a flight instructor in Texas. In 1944 he married Waco, Texas native Eugenia Hern.
Irving reached the rank of captain in the 783rd Bombardment Squadron, 465th Bombardment Group, 15th Air Force which was equipped with B-24 Liberators. The 465th BG started flying missions out of Italy in May 1944. Captain Stringham went overseas in August 1944. He completed 21 missions over the next three months.
On November 16, 1944 Captain Stringham was the pilot of B-24 42-51996. The target that day was the Munich marshaling yards. His bomber was hit by flak sending it flaming to the ground. Captain Stringham was originally reported as missing in action but by Christmas Eve his family received confirmation that he had been killed in action. None of the crew from his plane survived the mission.
His grave is at Provo City Cemetery in Provo, Utah. His widow remarried.
This is one of the final 100 stories (65) to be written as part of this project which ends on September 2, 2020, the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. At that time more than 1,370 men and women will have been profiled. The project will live on in an expanded program to write the stories of all 400,000+ US World War II fallen. Visit www.storiesbehindthestars.org to learn more. We welcome your continued support and interest and encourage you to help write some of these stories.
Last year on this date I profiled Distinguished Flying Cross glider pilot hero Elliot Hulet. You can read about Elliot 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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