Remains of WWII vet returned to family for burial after 63 years

KVOA.com ^ | Lupita Murillo

[SandRat]

The remains of a World War II hero are returned to family members here in Tucson.

For 63 years, the family of Tech Sgt. Hyman Stiglitz knew his plane was shot down over Germany.

But not until now did the family learn of their loved one's heroic actions.

It was the summer of 1944. Tech Sergeant Hyman Stiglitz was a radio operator on a mission flying over Germany.

He was in a B-24 bomber part of the 492nd wing. Their target a bridge. But when they hit it not all of the bombs fell out putting the crew in danger. However, Tech Sergeant Stiglitz saved the day. While dangling on a catwalk in an open bomb bay 20-thousand feet up he released the bombs that hadn't dropped saving the crew of 9.

Three weeks later the crew wasn't so lucky.

They came under attack behind enemy lines south of Berlin Germany. The plane crashed. Everyone died.

Now decades later family members of Tech Sergeant Stiglitz gathered at Evergreen Cemetery to pay their respects. Among them 82 year old brother Phillip Stuart who clutched the American flag saying his brother was very patriotic.

The remains of Tech Sergeant Stiglitz were brought to Tucson so they could be laid next to his parents.

[SandRat]

Rest Easy, You're Home Now Tech Sgt. Hyman Stiglitz.

[Hegemony Cricket]

Welcome back home, hero...

[Dubya]

Soldier rest, Gently pressed,
To the calm, Mother Earth's
Waiting breast;
Duty done, Like the sun:
Going West.

SEMPER FI SOLDIER, GOD BLESS YOU

[SandRat]

A hero is home at last.

[Inyo-Mono]

God bless this hero. Yet another great member of my Father’s generation (my Dad was in a B-24 also).

[Kathy in Alaska]

TAPS

Welcome home, Tech Sgt. Hyman Stiglitz, and RIP

Amazing Grace

[Cagey]

Tech. Sgt. Hyman L. Stiglitz, bottom left, poses with his B-24 bomber crew in this undated World War II Photo.

Courtesy of www.492ndbombgroup.com

God Speed.

[PAR35]

The article is a bit short on info. Was the body recently discovered?

[SandRat]

Yep.

[tubebender]

I’m clipping this to send to my brother in FResno. He flew 17 missions on a B17 before being shot down on Aug 15 1944. Was a POW until the end of that war.

Thanks for posting...

[Taylor42]

What about the rest of the crew?

[tubebender]

The pilot was killed in his seat. The radio man was wounded and my brother helped him out and was the last one out. One died at the hands of angry farmers with pitch forks and shovels. I think out of the nine five were POWs. One made it out with help of the underground and the wounded man was repatriated.

I asked awhile back how many practice jumps he had done and he said "NONE". He had only done tower jumps...

[tubebender]

Keith Ferris immortalized the Aug 15th 1944 raid over Wiesbaden with a 25 by 75 foot mural in the Air and Space Museum. My brother is in one of the B17's in the Rear View...

[tubebender]

And of course old Tork forgot the link...

http://www.303rdbg.com/thunderbird/ferris.html

[SouthTexas]

Thank you.

Rest Well Sir,
You Are Home

[TalBlack]

Years ago I read “Flying Fortress- The Story of the B-17” by Herbert somone-or-other. (8th Air Force being prominent)and it amazed me and continues to amaze me what a bunch of nobodies from nowheresville were asked to do and what they succeeded in doing. Guys who were on a farm or in a tenement somewhere one minute were out saving Civilization the next without any transition in between. Guys who were just beginning their adult lives and perhaps were just forming or implementing their plans, found themselves, after only mere months, dangling from bomb bays at altitude dislodging unreleased and armed bombs.

God Bless them all.

[Cap Huff]

Your brother’s story sounds somewhat like that of my father’s experience. He was a gunner on a B17 that was shot down near Wiener Nuestadt, Austria, around May of 1944 if I recall his story. An old man with a shotgun and a young boy apprehended him when he landed (first and only parachute jump in his life). He thought he was going to be shot, but he was not.

He spent the rest of the war as a POW.

Somewhat happier ending for his crew, than for that of your brother’s however. All of them made it out of the damaged bomber. All survived the jump. All made it through the year or so of POW status. In the mid 1980s all of them got together for a reunion with their bomb group.

The Greatest Generation!

(But that is not to take away anything from the brave military members who have fought in other wars -— especially to today.)

[tubebender]

Thanks for the reply. They were the greatest generation, not only for their Military service but they were born just prior to the Depression and had to suffer that also. When they came home they started the greatest economic boom ever seen. They also pumped out babies by the millions and millions.

Do you know what bomb group your father was in? My brother was in the 303 other wise know as the HELLS ANGELS I can spend hours clicking around there. Some of these flyer's started a motor cycle club on the west coast called the Hells Angels and the rest is history...

[Pilsner]

One died at the hands of angry farmers with pitch forks and shovels.

One of the lesser know facts of WWII is that the Luftwaffe established small, motorized, units all over Germany, whose job was to secure shot down Allied Airmen.

Not to keep them from escaping, but to keep them from being murdered by German civilians.

[tubebender]

You are right about that. The German Military, especially the air force were 100% better with the POW’s than the Japanese.