A few months ago, Melissa Mahoney had received a message from a cousin that Sgt. Hogan's remains had been found. After Kass's column, she began checking and cross-checking documents and information about the plane crash.
The bomber went down September 13, 1944,near Neustadt, Germany, after a bombing raid on German oil refineries. Sgt. Hogan and Lt. Wasilewski had spent their last minutes together.
Sgt. John E. Hogan's remains were buried at Arlington National Cemetery August 24th and Melissa Mahoney and other relatives were there.
Lt. Wasilewski's relatives were also on hand when he was buried in June. None of them had ever met him but everyone knew the story of the grandfather and the empty grave at St. Casimir and how the old man would stand at it mourning his boy.
Wasilewski's casket was draped with an American flag and in the coffin were his remains and a uniform. A horse-drawn caisson brought the casket to the grave and there was a 21-gun salute and a bugler played taps.
It was too bad that the father who lost his son that day almost 70 years ago couldn't have been there.
This Was Quite an Amazing Story. --GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
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