Another Returns

There are several sites that have nice pictures of SSG Vincent Jerome Rogers, Jr in his uniform. There is also a very touching story about Vincent as he relayed his life in the Army thru letters he wrote his family before he was lost at sea at the young age of 21. Vincent was born in New York on 1 June 1922 to Vincent Jerime and Ruth Tolson Rogers, perhaps in Buffalo, NY. He resided in Erie County, New York prior to the war. He enlisted in the Army on October 20, 1942 in Buffalo, New York with Service # 12169863. He was noted, at the time of his enlistment as being Single, without Dependents. Vincent served as a Staff Sergeant & Asst. Radio Operator / Gunner on B-24J #42-72982, 38th Bomber Squadron, 30th Bomber Group, U.S. Army Air Force during World War II. B-24J #42-72982 took off from Helen Island, Tarawa Atoll, Gilbert Islands on a combat mission. The pilot had trouble keeping altitude and the B-24 crashed shortly after take off. Vincent was declared “Missing In Action” in this crash during the war. He was awarded a “Distinguished Flying Cross”, Air Medal with 1 Oak Leaf Cluster, and the Purple Heart. He also has a “Cenotaph” in the Yorks Corners Cemetery, Willing, New York: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56120827/vincent-jerome-rogers The following is an exermpt from the story. Rest In Peace, SSG Rogers. Salute. “Lost World War II Airman Lived On in Letters. Now He Has Been Found.” https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/04/us/vincent-j-rogers-ww2.html “For nearly a decade, hundreds of letters that Staff Sgt. Vincent J. Rogers Jr. wrote home have been displayed at a California museum, bearing witness to the transformation of a New York teenager into a World War II radio operator deployed in the Pacific.” “Scrawled with folksy good humor, the letters have been all that was known of Sergeant Rogers since Jan. 21, 1944, when the bomber he was on crashed after takeoff from Tarawa Atoll.” “More than 230 letters written by Sergeant Rogers between 1942 and 1944 have been on display at the March Field Air Museum in Riverside, Calif., since 2010. Like… Read more »

Sad part of this are the non recoverable that will never bring complete closure to their families. We will never be able to get a full disclosure of all the POW’s that were held and died in their captivity, ones aboard ships and planes lost at sea or over hostile areas. One can only hope that continued cooperation between all parties will work together till all avenues of recovery are exhausted and hopefully other countries that were involved in the wars in the past will join and help. In Vietnam alone there are 488 out of close to 2,000 that are determined to be lost forever. Sadly the majority of these will most likely be Aviation types as so many were lost in the north and in the swamps and jungles that access is pretty much non existent.