About a Buddy - Lost, Found and Remembered -
Part Two
A Tribute to Lt. William F. Harker - by Robert D. Davis
Meanwhile, I went on to finish radio school, gunnery school and crew training as a radio operator/gunner on a B-24 crew. In April 1944 our crew began flying missions from
England with the Eighth Air Force, 392nd Bomb Group, 578th Bomb Sqdn
(see unit patch at right). Bill and I maintained contact by mail during this time and a couple of days before our last mission, I received a letter from Bill saying he had finished his P-51 training and for me to
"hold on", that he would soon be coming over. I sent a letter back telling him, among other things, to stay in the states as it was definitely unhealthy in the ETO, and the next day, May 29th, we were shot down and I became a POW.
I returned to the States in early June of 45, and later that month I visited Bill's home to find out about him and was told he had been lost during a strafing mission on April 11th. At that time the information his folks had received was very sketchy as to details, but there was no question as to his being lost.
In 2004 I happened to check the World War II Memorial web site and decided to see if Bill was listed. Sure enough he was listed and one of the sponsors was his sister, Jean. I tried to locate her but with no success. The listing did give Bill's Fighter Group (354th) and so I then found their web site and Mr. Daniel Carrizales, who maintains the site. During the next two years we maintained contact. This past December, Mr. Carrizales put me in touch with a contact in the State Department who did the initial investigation of the crash site. He in turn put me in contact with a Mr. Walter Harrington of Hinsdale, New Hampshire who had been a buddy of Bill's in pilot training.
Mayor Ranier Wernicke of Trautenstein, Germany Bill's gravesite.
Walter Harrington epitomizes the definition of the word, “buddy". Thru steady persistence after 50 years he managed to determine Bill's crash site, that he had been buried there and arranged for a suitable marker. On October 30th 1997, seventeen active duty members of the Special Forces Association carried out services appropriate for a fallen hero at the crash site in Wernigerode, Germany.
Although on foreign soil, Bill is now again one of ours. After learning of the time and location of the crash, I decided to check my own records. On April 11, 1944 I was nearing the end of a long march across Germany, having started from Stalag Luft 4 in Poland. We had just re-crossed the Elbe River slightly north east of Hanover. So of all the places in the world Bill and I might have been at that moment in time, we ended up only fifty miles or so apart when he crashed.
I returned to Goslar, Germany on a business trip in the late 60's. Turns out Goslar was only 25 miles or so from Wernigerode.
As you might gather, in my opinion, William F. Harker was one of the finest individuals I've ever met, and I will never forget him.
Jean Harker Adams, Bill's sister
Gentlemen, I thank you all for all the time and attention spent to honor my brother. He was loved and is still missed greatly, as he always will be.
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Haker's stone marker outside the village of Trautenstein, Germany. |
U.S. Army Honor Guard salute as taps is being sounded at the service. Bugler in the background. |
Words cannot express how much this memorial
has meant to me and my family.
Sincerely, Jean Harker Adams.
Back to Part One
Credits
About a Buddy -
Lost, Found, and Remembered:
A Tribute to Lt. William F. Harker by Robert D. Davis.
Contributing sources
Walter Harrington
Embassy of the United States of America