From the July 26, 1942 edition of the Monroe Morning World:
BUDDY QUARTET IN AIR CORPS Four Lifelong Friends Join U. S. Forces At Same Time Here Four fine, patriotic Sicily Island youths trooped into Sergeant McNemar's office in the Monroe post office building last Tuesday afternoon, hot and tired, and informed him that they were ready to go. He talked to them informally for several minutes and then inquired as to which branch of the service they would like to enlist for, at which point one of the young men spoke up and said, "Well, Sergeant, down at Sicily Island the folks all say that you are an honest man and that you stick to your word and that you do everything possible to please the people who come to your office so we are going to leave it up to you, big boy." The recruiter quickly sized each of them up and said that the air forces would be indeed glad to have them, and that he believed each of them would be a decided asset to the air forces and to apply for that branch of service when they arrived at the reception center at Camp Beauregard.
Monroe Morning World
7/26/1942
The four young men mentioned are: Charles David Bourke, 20, son of Mrs. Ida Bourke, who was so anxious to enlist that he forgot to get his mother's written consent, but a long-distance telephone call from McNemar soon remedied that situation, and within an hour he had her telegraphic consent; Charles Clinton Cloy, 20, son of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Horace Cloy; William Harmon Randall, 21, son of Mr. and Mrs. John Calvin Randall; and Edsel Girard Thurman, 19, son of Mr. and Mrs. Rastus Lee Thurman. All four of these splendid young fellows were born and reared at Sicily Island, attended the same schools and churches, and have been lifelong pals and friends, and now that they had reached young manhood, they decided that they wanted to continue their close companionship and enlist together in the same branch of the service. At noon on Thursday, these four boys were back to see Sergeant McNemar, with their pre-enlistment papers completed, their releases from the draft board, and were ready to set out on the great adventure of their lives. The sergeant said later that he knew the people of Sicily Island, who had seen these boys grow up into the peak of their splendid young manhood, are indeed proud of them, and that he feels that each of them will go a long way in the army.
Died on July 23, 1998
Buried in the Highland Park Cemetery
Sicily Island, Catahoula Parish, Louisiana
Staff Sergeant
United States Army Air Corps
Enlisted on June 14, 1941
Monroe Morning World - 6/15/1941
The above newspaper clipping shows Howard Louis Smith (Standing; 1st from the left) with other men from Northeast Louisiana who had enlisted in the Army Air Corps at Barksdale field in June of 1941. Also shown in the photograph is their Staff Sergeant from the Monroe Army Recruiting office, Harold B. McNemar.
Ota Gilbert "O. G." Wynn, Jr. was born on June 12, 1918 in Prescott, Nevada County, Arkansas. He was the second of four children born to the marriage of Ota Gilbert "O. G." Wynn, Sr. and Kate Ward. The Wynn family moved to Louisiana in the early 1920s and eventually made Sicily Island their home.
O. G. Wynn, Jr. married Lillian Jeanette Young of Jonesville in December of 1942. A son, James Howard, was born to this marriage.
Mr. O. G. and Mrs. Lillian were two of the most respected people in Sicily Island. Both were faithful members of the First United Methodist Church. Many people remember Mrs. Lillian as the Home Economics teacher at Sicily Island High School where she taught her students proper etiquette, meal preparations and the basics of sewing.
Mr. O. G. was a draftsman for the civil engineering firm of Jordan, Kaiser and Sessions in Natchez, Mississippi and earlier for Peck Lumber Company in Sicily Island.
Words such as courteous, well spoken, respectful, unassuming and polite repeatedly came to mind as I contemplated how best to describe Mr. O. G. as I and others remembered him.
As I began to research and learn more about his life it soon became apparent that what I and many others knew about this man was only half of the story.
World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946 show Private O. G. Wynn enlisting in the United States Army on March 16, 1942.
He served in the following Army Airborne Divisions during the Second World War:
17th Airborne Division - Golden Talon / Thunder from Heaven
82nd Airborne Division - All American
101st Airborne Division - Screaming Eagle
101st Airborne
17th Airborne
82nd Airborne
He earned service stars for the following campaigns during World War II:
Ardennes Campaign: The Battle of the Bulge - 12/16/1944 - 1/25/1945
Central Europe Campaign - 3/22/1945 - 5/11/1945
Spearhead for Airborne Rhine Crossing: Operation Varsity - 3/24/1945
As part of the Spearhead for Airborne Rhine Crossing, Sergeant Major Wynn crossed the Rhine River in a glider as part of Operation Varsity. He was awarded the Bronze Star for his bravery under direct enemy fire.
The following excerpt is from the January 17, 2007 edition of the Catahoula News Booster and was written by Howard Wynn about his father's memories of Operation Varsity:
A five hundred mile column of C-47 airplanes left France on March 24, 1945, carrying the American 17th Airborne Division and the British 6th Airborne Division. This entourage of 3,100 aircraft escorted by 1,000 fighter planes began the invasion of the German heartland across the Rhine River.
Wynn's glider, designated number 3 in its group, was a motorless craft every bit as large as the airplane that towed it. Glider number 3 landed just after noon in a field a few miles north of Wesel, Germany, a town about the size of Monroe.
Wesel had been bombed out and the German soldiers had left the town to position themselves in the country side. Some of them were hiding in a farmhouse by a railroad track near the edge of the field.
Sergeant Major Wynn saw them firing at him and his fellow soldiers and directed small arms fire at the doors and windows of the house. That fire cowered the Germans while the Americans ran down a narrow trail and found cover behind the railroad embankment.
The German army retreated and the American command assigned Sergeant Major Wynn the occupation of Gartrop Castle, near the town of Huenxe, which was about the size of Natchez and only a few miles from Wesel.
Operation Varsity Footage of Airborne Assault across the Rhine near Wesel, Germany:
(Glider Troops at the 3:23 mark)
O. G. Wynn was discharged from the Army as a Sergeant Major of the 101st Airborne Division. In 1992, he published "A Soldier of the Post" in which he recorded his experiences during World War II.
Ota Gilbert "O. G." Wynn, Jr. died on June 30, 2012. He is buried alongside his wife in the Jena Cemetery in Jena, LaSalle Parish, Louisiana.
Courteous, well spoken, respectful, unassuming and polite. Yes, he was all of these things. He was also courageous, valiant, loyal and brave.
Special thanks to Howard Wynn for allowing me to share his father's photograph and his father's memories of Operation Varsity.
A separate post is planned to continue the story of Sergeant Major Wynn's time at Gartrop Castle and the search which began in 2006 to find the castle and uncover the mystery of an old photograph.
From an article published in the February 2, 1958 edition of the Morgantown Dominion News in Morgantown, West Virginia:
MDN - 2/2/1958
Transcription:
Stratotanker Crash Reported Winnsboro, La. Feb 4 (UP)
A KC 97 Stratotanker crashed in a swamp near the Catahoula Parish line tonight about 10 miles southeast of here, state police reported five men were believed to be aboard.
A Monroe, La. Civil Aeronautics Administration official said the pilot of the big tanker, used to refuel Strategic Air Command B47 and B52 planes in flight, radioed that he was losing altitude and would attempt a crash landing at Monroe Airport.
However, a pilot for a Southern Airways plane en route to New Orleans, said he saw the big tanker crash into a swamp near the Catahoula Parish line.
State police and parish deputies said it was not known if any crew members bailed out of the aircraft before it crashed.
The earlier C-97 Stratofreighter model was a cargo/transport carrier. Boeing overhauled this earlier model to include the 'flying boom' in-flight refueling system and introduced the KC-97 in 1950. The KC-97 allowed the United States Air Force to continue to use the heavy carrier for transport without removing the in-flight refueling system.
KC-97 / USAF Museum
The video below shows the KC-97 refueling a B47 in 1957:
I have been unable to find any other record of the reported 1958 crash near Catahoula Parish.
Please leave a comment or email me at rootsfromthebayou@gmail.com if you remember hearing about this crash back in 1958 or if you have any information on the location of the crash, crew members' names, or fate of the crew.
Walter L. Johnson and Mary Katherine "Kate" Stutson
Brother to
Clarence Bertram, Irma, Clifford, Emmet Elsworth, Walter Herbert, Robert Earl,
George and Hewitt Johnson
Husband of
Tommie Louise Terry
From the National Archives and Records Administration:
Major Johnson was the pilot of a F4U-4B Corsair fighter with the Marine Fighter Squadron 212, Marine Air Group 12, 1st Marine Air Wing.
On April 23, 1952, while on a combat mission, his aircraft crashed into its target and exploded.
Awarded:
Distinquished Flying Cross
Air Medal with 2 Gold Stars
Purple Heart
Combat Action Ribbon
Korean Service Medal
United Nations Service Medal
National Defense Service Medal
Korean Presidential Unit Citation
Republic of Korea War Service Medal
Source: National Archives and Records Administration. U. S., Korean War Casualties, 1950-1957 Online database through Ancestry.com
BUDDY QUARTET IN AIR CORPS
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![USAF [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AC-47s_and_CG-4s_for_Op_Varsity_1945.jpg){kind=link}
