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