Saturday, May 23, 2015

Memorial Day 2015

416th Men Still Missing in Action (ABMC Wall of the Missing) 

 Memorial Day is a time to remember those who gave their lives to preserve all the things that we hold dear about life in America.  There are far too many of them to even attempt to know or name them all, but we will concentrate here today on ten young men.  They are the 416th Bomb Group crew members who are lost in time.  Ten of the members of this Group who died in combat still do not yet have a final resting place.  Six of them were lost on one tragic mission.  That might seem like a small number when one contemplates the enormity of World War II, but to each of those ten families it was and remains a cross to bear.  Technically, the search for these men is ongoing, but as a practical matter all have since been declared "non-recoverable" by the U.S. Government.  Fortunately, there are many here and abroad who choose not to accept that finality and the search for them goes on. 

Raines, Arthur A. Jr.     2Lt    669    10Apr44    ABMC Cambridge Wall
Bender, Glenn J.           SSgt   669    10Apr44   ABMC Cambridge Wall
Nielsen, Jack O.           SSgt   669    10Apr44   ABMC Cambridge Wall
Cramsie, William E.     1Lt     671    10Apr44   ABMC Cambridge Wall
Henshaw, Charles R.    SSgt   671    10Apr44   ABMC Cambridge Wall
Steward, Jack               SSgt   671    10Apr44   ABMC Cambridge Wall
Cruze, Raymond K.     1Lt     668    18Jul44     ABMC Cambridge Wall
Murphy, Thomas A.     1Lt     670    1 Jan 45    ABMC Ardennes Wall
Kiker, Charles M.         Sgt     669    14Jan45    ABMC Lorraine Wall
Griffith, John J. Jr.        Sgt     668    18Mar45   ABMC Lorraine Wall