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| Lt. Eugene Thruman was a B-24 pilot in the 376th Bombardment Group. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/50870779/eugene-doyle-thurman/photo |
Flight Officer (Lieutenant) Eugene Doyle Thurman of Anson, Texas, never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he died serving our country at age 23 in an air crash in England on March 18, 1944.
Born August 6, 1920 in Anson, he was the son of Chester Lee Thurman, a farmer, and Rebecca Valadie Huff Thurman. He graduated from Anson High School and attended John Tarleton College in Stephenville, Texas, for two years.
He married Alonza Lee Stanphill, of Denison, Texas, daughter of a chiropractor, on August 11, 1941. (Note to researchers: Her name is misspelled “Stanfield” in some news articles.)
He entered the Army Air Forces February 13, 1942 and received his pilot’s wings May 20, 1943 in Stockton, California. Lt. Thurman served in Italy with the 376th Bombardment Group, 15th Air Force. He was stationed near Brindisi, Italy, flying B-24 Liberator Bombers on missions over Italy and Germany. In the winter of 1944 he missed some flights because his feet got frostbitten when a heater failed in the cockpit. He was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds received on December 19, 1943, and the Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters for 20 bombing flights as a Liberator pilot.
In March of 1944 he and his crew flew a “ferry” mission to take a group of officers to England. On the return trip, his aircraft struck a power line on takeoff from a field near Cornwall, England, crashed and exploded, killing all five men aboard. Others who died were Thurman’s co-pilot, Second Lieutenant George H. Jensen; the navigator, Second Lieutenant Walter E. McKay; first engineer, Staff Sergeant Milton Hewitt of Kanas; and radio operator, Staff Sergeant Joseph C. Rosendale of Massachusetts.
His family held a memorial service in Anson on April 15, 1944. His remains were returned to the States after the war and he was buried Sunday July 18, 1948 at Mount Hope Cemetery in Anson. In addition to his parents and widow, he was survived by two brothers and a sister. His mother died in 1952 and his father in 1974. They are buried alongside their son. His widow did not remarry and died in California at age 85 in 2008. As the widow of a veteran she is interred at the Riverside National Cemetery, Riverside, California.
Thank you, Flight Officer Eugene Doyle Thurman, for your sacrifice. Let's Earn It for Eugene.
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This profile was written by John F. Schlatter (whose birthday is today!). “I’m from Knoxville, Tennessee and a retired corporate public relations manager, living in Las Vegas. I served as an active duty and reserve Army officer 1974-82. I’ve written two books about veterans. One tells the stories of WWII veterans through postcards they wrote to the folks back home, and the other honors about 50 of the 168 Americans who died in Vietnam on the Fourth of July. I’ve also been a volunteer in the effort to find photographs of all 58,000 Americans who died in Vietnam. Researching and writing the stories of those who died to preserve freedom has gone from a hobby to a passion for me. If we don’t honor and remember, who will?”
This is one of the final 50 stories (28) 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 Guadalcanal fallen and Distinguished Service Cross hero Floyd Pearson, Americal Division. You can read about 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.
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WW2 Fallen 100 is supported by
The Greatest GENERATIONS Foundation
“Where Every Day is Memorial Day”
References
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/50870779/eugene-doyle-thurman
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