WARTIME LISTS OF KILLED IN ACTION
BRING TRAGEDY TO ADDITIONAL HOMES
Year End Review Edition
Sorrowful news, in the form of messages advising the next of kin of the death of a loved one somewhere in the service of their nation, came to an increasing number of homes in Muscatine and vicinity during 1944 as the country’s military operations against enemies on World war No. 2 proceeded on an accelerated pace. Emphasis upon the tremendous cost of warfare in human lives was called in repeated instances, by official messages, relating that men from this community had made the supreme sacrifice while following the flag with the respective branches of the armed services. News dispatches from the scenes of history –making engagements recorded in the third year of this nation’s participation in war were followed, in the course of a brief lapse of time, and with distressing regularity, by official notification to the effect that someone from this community was included among those who had given their lives.
But brief bits of information were available, in most instances, for the bereaved relatives of servicemen whose deaths were written into the record during this third year of the war. The date, the theater of action, perchance a note to the effect that the serviceman had been buried in an American cemetery abroad- and but little more were ordinarily included. Subsequently, in instances, letter from companions in service, or others in close association, gave additional details. For some, whose death occurred while in service in this country, funeral services were conducted when bodies were returned to the home community for burial. For others, who died on foreign soil, memorial services were conducted at various churches of their affliction.
Community memorial services, honoring those whose lives were given in the service of their country were conducted at the Muscatine high school auditorium Sunday, Nov. 26, with representatives of various pastoral organizations participating establishing a custom of holding on the last Sunday afternoon of each month, similar memorial service for the community’s war heroes.
Brief sketches of those who gave their lives in the service of their country since the outbreak of the war, compiled from causality list and information obtained from relatives follow:
TECH. SGT. GREGORY BURDETTE CROCK
With the U.S. army air cops, Tech. Sgt. Gregory Crock was killed in action over Germany on Dec. 19, 1943, a message to his mother, Mrs. Fred Schermer, 1208 East Fourth street, revealed. He had been listed previously as missing in action. He was a tail gunner on a Flying Fortress and enlisted in the army air corps in May, 1942. He received his overseas assignment in April, 1943.
Source: Muscatine Journal and News-Tribune, Year End Edition, Friday, December 29, 1944
140 Have Made Supreme Sacrifice in Muscatine Area In War Against Axis Powers; Many Reported Wounded
Tech. Sgt. Gregory Burdett Crock, 24, son of Mrs. Fred Schermer, 1208 East Fourth street, killed in action Dec. 19, 1943, over Germany.
Source: Muscatine Journal, Victory in Europe Edition, May 7, 1945
Gregory Burdette Crock AKA Gregory Branch was born Nov. 12, 1919 to Gregory F. and Ethel N. Crock. He died Dec. 19, 1943 and is buried in Zachary Taylor National Cemetery, Louisville, KY.
Sgt. Crock served with the U.S. Army Air Corps on B-17 #42-73418 and was KIA in Italy and awarded the Purple Heart.
Source: ancestry.com
