Alvin Kadlecek

I want to thank Gloria Farrugia and Brenda Albers Miles (DHS '66) for providing me the details for this item.

Fort Bend ISD has asked the public to propose names for four new schools now under construction. Click here for details on submitting names. (Note: submissions must be made by September 30th.)

I think the public has submitted H. L. 'Chuzzy' Jenkins and Jack Neal as possible names for a school and the agricultural barn. Anyway, Gloria submitted the name of her great uncle, Alvin Kadlecek (SLHS '40), and Brenda forwarded some of the supporting documentation, which I found remarkable.
 

Alvin Kadlecek is just beneath the class photo's label.

 

I believe it was Gloria's brother Charles who found official records on how their great uncle was killed in action during WWII.  I have never seen an official report like this and thought it should be passed along.

As you'll see, Alvin was the radio operator on a B-24 Liberator bomber sent on a raid from Torreto, Italy on April 2, 1944.  The target was Bihac, Yugoslavia.  His plane collided with another B-24 and broke in two.  He was not wearing a parachute when he was flung out of the forward half of the divided plane.  Apparently, his body was never recovered. Click here to read the official report.  You can read accounts from crewmen on other bombers, plus an account from the sole survivor of Alvin's plane (Antonio Lerma, flight engineer from Laredo, Texas).