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| 1st Lieutenant George Diemer was a F4U-1 Corsair pilot for Marine Aircraft Group 31 based in Kwajalein. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/63910616/george-willis-diemer https://www.reddit.com/r/MilitaryPorn/comments/2wcd71/f4u_1d_no_122_marine_air_group_31_vmf_111_was_the/ |
George Willis Diemer, Jr. never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
George was born on June 11, 1920 in Excelsior Springs, Missouri. His parents George and Susie were born in Kansas and Missouri, respectively. His father worked as the president of Central Missouri State Teachers College. George Junior had one older sister, a twin brother, and one younger sister. George graduated from his father's college. While there, he and his twin John operated a dance band. He played coronet and piano and sang baritone.
George volunteered for the Marines in July 1942. His musical talents carried on and he served as a bugler while in training. He qualified for flight school and ended up as a F4U-1 Corsair pilot. He became a first lieutenant in Marine Fighting Squadron 311, Marine Aircraft Group 31 which was sent to the South Pacific in September 1943 and was based in Roi, Kwajalein. The MAG 31 flew neutralization missions against Japanese garrisons in the Marshall Islands that had been bypassed from invasion. While there he organized and directed a men's choir.
On February 12, 1944 Lt. Diemer had a close call when during an air raid he survived a Japanese bomb that sent him hurling through the air. Only afterward did he realize he had taken shelter in a munitions storage room. His tent has been destroyed during the bombing along with his coronet.
On May 26, 1944 Lt. Diemer took off from the Roi airfield and shortly thereafter crashed offshore. He made a safe water landing and his plane was intact. A seaplane was sent to pick him up. Minutes away from rescue, Lt. Diemer slipped off the wing and drowned after being caught in an unexpected treacherous undertow.
His grave is at Sunset Hill Cemetery in Warrenburg, Missouri.
You can read additional details about Lt. Diemer at his Findagrave memorial.
This is one of the final 100 stories (84) 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 Leyte fallen combat engineer Wayne McKinnie and his brother-in-law Floyd Wade. You can read about Wayne and Floyd 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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