Number From Area Included On Missing Lists; Safety of Some Subsequently Reported.
“Missing in action.”
Official notifications from the war and navy departments, bearing this saddening information about a loved one, have come to a number of homes in this area since the Pearl Harbor attack back in the waning days of 1941.
For some relatives, this opening sentence was followed by happier information in the course of time. For others, where no further details have been received, only the hope will come, revealing the safety of a loved one.
For, in a number of cases, some of the men who were reported as missing in action were later reported to have rejoined their combat units, or rescued by comrades. Others, subsequent messages related, were being held prisoners by enemy countries and have communicated with relatives.
Others, about whom their commanders have had no additional information to relate, have, after an interval, been declared officially to have been killed in action.
And, for the parents and relatives of some, the suspense of waiting has continued month after month, as they clung to the hope that no news may be good news and that some day, soon if possible, a message may clear, reporting that the absent member is alive and well.
From official lists issued at intervals, augmented in instances by information obtained from relatives and friends, the following information relative to those from this area who have been reported missing in action was obtained.
Sgt. Henry DeKeyrel, serving as a turret gunner on a U. S. bomber in the English theater of operations, was reported missing in action since Oct. 2. The official word came to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Rene DeKeyrel. He was 21 and enlisted in the air corps on Sept. 7, 1942. He trained at Army air bases in Texas, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Idaho and Wyoming before being sent overseas.
Source: Muscatine Journal and News-Tribune, December 30, 1943 (photo included)
LIST OF MISSING IN ACTION GREW IN 1944
Among those from this area who have been listed as missing in action in official dispatches to next of kin, and upon casualty lists of the armed services, are:
STAFF SGT. HENRY DeKEYREL—Serving as a turret gunner on a U. S. bomber in the English theater of operations, Staff Sgt. Henry DeKeyrel of Illinois City was listed as missing in action since Oct. 2, 1943, in a message received by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Rene DeKeyrel, from the War Department. He enlisted on Sept. 7, 1942.
Source: Muscatine Journal and News-Tribune, Friday, December 29, 1944
Henry Rene “Hank" Dekeyrel was born Nov. 10, 1922 to Ben and Helena VanLandegen DeKeyrel. He is memorialized at the Tablets of the Missing, Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial, Margraten, Netherlands.
Source: ancestry.com
