US Army Air Corps WWII

July 8, 1920
Special thanks to Terry Wirick, who brought this story under my attention
April 16, 1944

REMAINS OF WWII AIRMEN RETURNED HOME AFTER 63 YEARS.

Tech. Sgt. Richard Ransom Sargent, age 23 of North Girard (Now Lake City), returned to home on July 7, 2007.

On April 16, 1944 a B-24 Liberator crewed by airmen, including Engineer Sargent, was returning to the aerodrome at Nadzab, New Guinea, after bombing enemy targets near Hollandia. The Liberator was altering course due to bad weather and was proceeding to the aerodrome in Saidor, but it never returned to friendly lines.

In 2001, the US Embassy in Papua New Guinea notified the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, (JPAC), that wreckage of a World War II bomber had been found in Morobe Province. Early the next year, a JPAC team surveyed the site and found wreckage and remains of the Airmen who were aboard the Liberator named “Here Tis”

Richard was born in Erie, July 8, 1920 the Middle son of the late James Thomas and Lorena Ransom Sargent. With the death of his father in 1929, Richard moved with his mother. Lorena and two brothers, Ross and Keith to North Girard, now known as Lake City. He graduated from Girard’s Rice Avenue Union High School.

As America was at War, Richard enlisted in the United States Army following one year of college and joined the Army Air Corps. From September through December of 1942, he was at Air Corps technical School, Keesler Field, Mississippi (outside Biloxi). By January of 1943, he was then sent to Albuquerque, NM, on to Roswell, NM. From there, his next stop was Las Vegas, NV. In September of 1943, Richard had earned his Sergeant’s stripes and was stationed with the 604th Bomb Squadron at Wendover Field in Wendover, Utah. In December of 1943, he was deployed overseas.

The other airmen were identified as: 2nd Lt. Raymond A. Cooley, of Leary, Texas; 2nd Lt. Dudley R. Ives, of Ingleside, Texas; 2nd Lt. George E. Archer, of Cushing, Okla.; 2nd Lt. Donald F. Grady, of Harrisburg, Pa.; Tech. Sgt. Steve Zayac, of Cleveland; Staff Sgt. Joseph M. King, of Detroit; Staff Sgt. Thomas G. Knight, of Brookfield, Ill.; Staff Sgt. Norman L. Nell, of Tarkio, Mo.; and Staff Sgt. Blair W. Smith, of Nu Mine, Pa.

These photo’s I received from Nancy Donald and her grateful family.
She is Richard’s niece, she never knew him but she arranged everything ,so Richard could be brought back home and is now resting at the Girard Cemetery...

There are more than 74,000 WWII service personnel still missing, according to the Defense Department's Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office .