World War II Honoree

Stanley J. Alenier

Branch of Service

U.S. Army Air Force

Hometown

Amsterdam, New York

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Second Lieutenant. Inducted into the United States Army August 8, 1942 at Albany, New York. Upon his graduation from recruit training, he was designate to attend the Flight Aviation Training Program. After completing the flight training phases, and Navigator Schooling, he accepted his Commission with the Rank of Second Lieutenant. He served as a Navigator aboard the B-24J ‘Liberator’ Bomber, and was assigned to the Thirty-Eighth Bombardment Squadron, Thirtieth Bombardment Group, a subordinate unit of the U.S. Seventh Army Air Forces. His unit was based at Tarawa Airfield ‘Hawkins Field’ on Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll Gilbert Islands Location: Central Pacific Theater of Operations. Report missing in action, lost at Sea Friday, January 21, 1944, when the pilot experienced engine failures during take-off, crashing into the Tarawa Lagoon. In remembrance of the brave, his name is permanently inscribed in the tablets of the missing, memorialized at the Honolulu Memorial Location: Honolulu, Hawaii. This American Patriot received the following decorations posthumously: Air Medal and the Purple Heart. The Air Medal was awarded to the Lieutenant for meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight, and the Purple Heart for his ultimate sacrifice.