Wilbur D Brewer ★ World War II Gold Star Veteran from Illinois

On June 1, 1944 Staff Sergeant Brewer was declared a casualty of World War II. ★ He served with honor in the United States Army Air Forces. ★ He is remembered by the people of Illinois. ★ May his positive example inspire us. Working together towards peace, mutual respect, and equality for all.

Wilbur D Brewer

World War II

➧Please note that we do not have a verified profile image in our archive for this service member. Our research team is working to locate and study additional supporting documentation.

World War II

Illinois

B-17 Airmen

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▼ Content Integrity Note

Our displayed data concerning the life and military history of Wilbur D Brewer is a work in progress. We've assembled a list of elements we are in the process of researching and reviewing. This profile was last edited on 2022-03-11 17:52:04.

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Missing : Core Data

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Missing : Supplemental Data

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Service Details

This Profile ID	453329
Service ID	16075633
Name	Wilbur D Brewer
From	Clinton, DeWitt County, Illinois
Casualty Date	June 1, 1944
War	World War II
Service Branch	Army Air Forces
Rank	Staff Sergeant
Specialty	Top Turret Gunner
Unit/Group	401st Bomber Group, Heavy
Casualty Type	DNB - Died Non-battle
Location	Cave Hill, Belfast, Northern Island
Burial	Memorial Park Cemetery, Clinton, DeWitt County, Illinois
Notable Awards	★ Air Medal

Additional Details

Wilbur D Brewer was born and raised in Illinois. He was the son of Charles C Brewer and Verna B Walker. He was married to Eileen Burns. Tragically, his parents and his wife all died in 1943, the year before Wilbur was killed in an air crash.

On June 1, 1944 he was on the crew of the B-17G #42-97862 during a transatlantic ferry flight. Their crew was being transferred from the 401st Bomber Group to the 306th. They had departed from the United States enroute to the UK. They had departed from the United States and had landed in Gander, Wales. They then left for their final leg in their journey when they crashed near Cave Hill on the outskirts of Belfast, Northern Island. There were no survivors.

We identified 10 casualties in our archive related to the #42-97862 incident on June 1, 1944.

◼Wilbur D Brewer :: Top Turret Gunner

◼Lester B Brooks :: Pilot

◼Lawrence E Dundon :: Radio Operator

◼Robert L Graves :: Ball Turret Gunner

◼Howard A Hibbler :: Left Waist Gunner

◼Edward E McGill :: Right Waist Gunner

◼Lawrence R McGrane :: Tail Gunner

◼Leighton B McKenzie :: Bombardier

◼Jeremiah C Murphy :: Co-Pilot

◼Joseph V Nobilione :: Navigator

Commendations + Awards

Please note this might not be a complete or completely accurate accounting. For some awards we use probability factors based on known service details. Thanks for your understanding.

★ Air Medal

★ World War II Victory Medal

★ American Campaign Medal

★ Army Presidential Unit Citation

★ Army Good Conduct Medal

Notable Reference Sources

These are typically links to pages on external sites that have provided specific nodes of information. In most cases the information has some assurance of being crowd-sourced and vetted by a community of users.

findagrave.com/ memorial/ 81087435/ wilbur-d-brewer

Illinois Gold Star Veterans Gallery

Honoring the men and women of Illinois who gave their all for their country. May their example of courage and sacrifice be our guide. To be strong and responsible in our lives as citizens of the world. Through honest daily actions, we honor them.

▶ Illinois was home to over 28,684 American Gold Star veterans from 4 wars of the 20th Century. Some significant statistics:

• 4,577 World War I
• 19,319 World War II
• 1,845 Korean War
• 2,943 Vietnam War
• 395 Prisoners of war
• 4,737 Missing in action
• 124 Pearl Harbor casualties
• 214 D-Day Normandy casualties
• 29 Medal of Honor recipients

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