Volunteers with Stories Behind the Stars are making it possible to find the stories of ALL the 294 World War II fallen buried in Section 8 of Arlington National Cemetery.
In the spring of 2023, I took a trip to Arlington National Cemetery and was able to visit some of their graves.
2LT Howard T Willey - Pilot and Cover Model
2LT Howard Willey (Section 8, Grave 5187 WH) was killed when his plane crashed during a training flight. He had recently been photographed for a weekly news magazine. After his death, his parents were surprised to see his cover photo that went to more than 4 million readers. 2LT Willey's story was written by Laura Hanaford of California.
2LT Gordon Pickering - The Missing New Year's Eve Flight
2LT Gordon Pickering (Section 8, Grave 6132) was the copilot of a B-24 that failed to return from a 1943 New Year's Eve night flight. The wreckage was found months later in a rugged area of Guadalupe Peak. 2LT Pickering's story was written by Molly Brown of Utah.
CPT William Lowry - Guerrilla Leader
William Lowry (Section 8, Grave 6383) was in the army reserves when he got a job with a mining company. He was sent to the Philippines in with his wife and two year old son. When the war started, rather than be captured by the Japanese, they disappeared into the jungle where William help organize and lead Filipino guerrilla efforts until he was captured and died in captivity. He was posthumous promoted to captain and awarded the Legion of Merit. CPT Lowry's story was written by Cindy Nelson of Wisconsin.
This is the first time in the history of Arlington National Cemetery that the general public has everything needed to identify details about all of the WWII fallen in this part of the cemetery. This was made possible by countless hours of volunteer researchers and writers.
We started out with a spreadsheet of 807 names we got from Arlington National Cemetery and Find A Grave. After sifting out names of family members and those who did not serve during World War II, we ended up with a list of 294 names. A team of 36 research volunteers scanned the internet to find additional details so we now have an easy-to-access record that includes service number, unit or ship, and photo (where available).
Next, under the direction of Section Director Tammy Burrows of California, a team of 30 volunteer writers stepped forward to write the stories of these 294 WWII fallen. You can find these and all the other ANC stories on Fold3 here.
You can see our current list of Arlington volunteer writers and database researchers here.
The database of these records will be combined with those of the other sections of ANC. This will be the most accurate list of WWII fallen buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
A copy of this section of the database is available upon request. don@storiesbehindthestars.org.
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