NEAR EACH OTHER
Two brothers, Earl Dean Underwood and Pvt. Arthur Underwood, and their uncle, Pfc. George T. Yaus are all stationed in England and Scotland within a short distance of each other. Yaus who is stationed just forty miles from Private Arthur Underwood, has a friend in his camp that spent his furlough with S2-c Earl Underwood. The brothers and uncle are looking forward to a reunion in the near future. The third Underwood brother, R. L. Underwood, who is in the navy, is serving aboard a ship somewhere in the south Pacific.
Source: Daily Freeman Journal, Webster City, IA - April 6, 1944
Overseas
Pvt. Arthur Underwood of this city is now stationed in England where he is attached to a parachute infantry unit.
Source: Daily Freeman Journal, Webster City, IA - May 1, 1944
‘CHUTIST WAS LOST ON D-DAY
Pvt. Arthur Underwood, 22, Missing in France Since June 6.
Mr. and Mrs. Roy Underwood and Elva Underwood of this city Monday received word that their son, Pvt. Arthur Underwood, 22, had been missing in action in France since D-Day, June 6.
Notification came in a letter from Private Underwood’s wife who lives at Vancouver, Wash., where she had received a war department telegram notifying her that her husband was among the missing.
Private Underwood served as a paratrooper with the U. S. armed forces and had been overseas since October.
His parents had received unofficial news that their son was missing some time ago, but the letter from his wife is the only verification of his being a casualty.
Source: Daily Freeman Journal, Webster City, IA - August 21, 1944 (photo included)
W. C. ‘CHUTIST, PVT. UNDERWOOD, NAZI PRISONER
Private Arthur K. Underwood, son of Mr. and Mrs. Roy Underwood of this city is a prisoner of war somewhere in Germany, according to word received here from the paratrooper’s wife who lives at Vancouver, Wash.
Private Underwood was reported missing June 6, D-Day, when the allied invasion forces hit Europe.
Source: Daily Freeman Journal, Webster City, IA - Oct. 6, 1944
NOTES:
Arthur Kingsley Underwood was born Oct. 3, 1922 to Roy M. and Elva J. Kepler Underwood. He died June 14, 1970 and is buried in Park Hill Cemetery, Vancouver, WA.
His Obituary:
Funeral services are pending for Arthur K. Underwood of Vancouver, who was killed Sunday in a mid-air plane collision near Scappoose, Oregon. He was 47.
A resident here for 20 years, Underwood lived at 6207 McKinley Dr. and was the owner of Art's Barber Shop, 1107 Main St., Vancouver, Washington.
He was born Oct. 3, 1922, in Webster City, Iowa.
During World War II, Underwood served in the 101st Airborne Division. He was a member of the Vancouver First United Methodist Church, the Northwest Antique Airplane Association, the Northwest Banjo Band of Vancouver and the Barbers Union Local 520.
Survivors include his wife, Betty J.; three sons, Phillip A. and Daniel L, both at home, and David R. of the U.S. Navy; a brother, Dean of Hawthorne, Calif.; and his parents, Roy Underwood, of Webster City, Iowa and Elva Underwood, of Hawthorne, Calif.
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From the June 15, 1970 Columbian newspaper, Vancouver, Washington:
Local man, youth die in plane crash
Federal Aviation Administration officials continued their investigation today into the mid-air collision that claimed the lives of two Vancouver residents and one other person Sunday during an antique air show at Scappoose, Oregon.
Investigators on the scene were sifting through the wreckage of two early-model planes this morning, but reports from the FAA team were scanty.
The local victims of the crash were Arthur K. Underwood, 47, of 6207 McKinley Dr., and James Gillie Oppel, 14, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Rollin Oppel of 5505 N.E. Drexel Ave.
A third person, Maynard Parsons, 46, of Bellevue, was also killed in the accident.
Preliminary reports from witnesses Sunday indicated the crash occurred while several antique planes were flying an oval formation at an altitude of about 500 feet.
Apparently one of the planes flew into the underside of the other, witnesses said.
An estimated 5,000 persons had gathered at the Scappoose Airport for the show. Most did not see the collision.
Underwood, flying out of the Evergreen Air Park, was piloting a restored Meyers bi-plane. He had served with the 101st Airborne Division during World War II, and had some 25 years flying experience.
Oppel, a passenger in Underwood's plane, was a member of the Vancouver Composite Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol. He was one of 25 cadets flown from Vancouver by the Northwest Antique Airplane club as a reciprocation for the cadets assistance during the Evergreen Air Show last summer.
FAA officials declined to say when their findings would be released, but added that it will take a couple of weeks to gather all the information.
One of those who saw the collision was Melvin Blackburn from a farm adjoining the airport.
Sources: ancestry.com
