World War II Honoree

Arthur E. Halfpapp

Branch of Service

U.S. Army Air Force

Hometown

Steelton, Pennsylvania

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Captain. On August 5, 1942, he was inducted into the United States Army Air Corps at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. After the completion of boot camp, he was accepted into the Flight Aviation Training Program. Served as a P-47 ‘Thunderbolt’ Fighter Pilot in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, and based at the Cesenatico Cervia Air Base in Italy. He was assigned to the Eighty-Seventh Fighter Squadron, Seventy-Ninth Fighter Group; Twelfth Army Air Forces. Reported missing in action Tuesday, April 24, 1945 while flying an armed reconnaissance mission to Alberone, Italy located in the PO Valley. After the completion of his first strafing pass on a convoy of trucks, his fighter was hit by German anti-aircraft ground fire, crashing in the Alberone area. After the crash, the mission flight leader circled the burning wreckage, and did not see any signs of life. His name is permanently inscribed in the tablets of the missing, memorialized at the Florence American Cemetery located at Via Cassia, Italy. After the cessation of hostilities in Europe, a Quartermaster Graves Registration Company, Quartermaster Corps conducted recovery operations at the crash site, but his remains were not recovered. In 2014 members of an Italian association contacted U.S. defense authorities that they had located an American aircraft crash site. Personnel from the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Agency excavated the site in 2015. The team found some remains, and transferred them to the Agency laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, where he was identified. This Airman was laid to rest with Military, Honors April 14, 2018 at the Indiantown Gap National Cemetery in Annville, Pennsylvania. He received the following decorations posthumously: Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters and the Purple Heart. The Distinguished Flying Cross awarded for support of operations by heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in an aerial flight. Air Medal was awarded for meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight. This American Patriot was awarded the Purple Heart, for his ultimate sacrifice in defense of his country.