Dave: West Point graduate, Dr. Douglas Cummings, told me about a plaque on the wall of Trinity Episcopal Church. I went there and found a big (est. 2'x3') marble plaque mounted on the western wall of the sanctuary, halfway down. It contains the following message: "Rush Howard Willard, Lt. Army Air Corps, died in the service of his country, Jan. 14. 1942"

I was thinking of calling Gerry Higgs about this person, as she has gathered a lot of information about early fliers.

Dr. Cummings and I are wondering if he was at Pearl Harbor (five weeks earlier), injured during that attack, passing that date in January, 1942. We speculated he might have died in air battles with the Japanese, but we are not aware of such direct engagement until the Battle of Midway which didn't happen until June, 1942. Cummings wondered if he was part of an American contingent in, say, the Philipines, or other Eastern Pacific locations which the Japanese also attacked around the time they attacked Pearl Harbor.

I notice that the name of the airman is not found in the list of Bay City people in your article.

Can you shed any light on this person?

Frank

James Headington was my father. It took him many years before he could comment on anything that happened that day.

Thanks for the story Dave. James (Jim) and Delores (Dee) were two of my dearest friends on Redwood St. in Little Rock. They were great neighbors, they were definitely part of the greatest generation that helped defend our country. I asked him about Pearl Harbor one day, and it was amazing to hear a firsthand account, but as his daughter said, Jim could barely even talk about it and the loss of his younger brother.