World War II Honoree

Frank Fazeka

Branch of Service

U.S. Army Air Force

Hometown

Trenton, New Jersey

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: First Lieutenant. On March 31, 1942, he entered the United States Army Air Corps with his induction at Trenton, New Jersey. After his graduation from Boot Camp, he was selected to attend the Flight Aviation Training Program. Served in the European Theater of Operations as a P-47D ‘Thunderbolt’ Fighter Pilot, assigned to the Twenty-Second Fighter Squadron, Thirty-Sixth Fighter Group United States Eighth 'Mighty Eighth' Air Force. His unit was based at the Royal Air Force Kingsnorth airfield in Kent, England. Killed in Action Saturday, May 27, 1944 when he was returning from a mission over northern France and his P-47 Thunderbolt aircraft came under enemy fire. His aircraft crashed in a field north of the French village of Buysscheure. After the cessation of hostilities in Europe, a Quartermaster Graves Registration Company, Quartermaster Corps conducted recovery operations in France, and his remains were not recovered. In August 2016, a team from the University of Wisconsin, augmented by the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Agency, excavated the crash site. The team recovered remains, American military gear and other artifacts. The remains were transferred to the Agencies laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, where he was identified. The remains of this Airman were interred with Military Honors March 28, 2018 at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. He received the following awards posthumously: Air Medal and a Purple Heart. The Air Medal awarded for meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight. This American Patriot was awarded the Purple Heart, as he so gallantly gave is life for his country.