World War II Honoree

Stephen J. Dabrowski

Branch of Service

U.S. Army Air Force

Hometown

Jersey City, New Jersey

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Second Lieutenant. Inducted into the United States Army January 16, 1941 at Newark, New Jersey. Upon his graduation from recruit training, he was designated to attend the Flight Aviation Training Program. After completing the flight training phases, and Bombardier Training, he accepted his Commission with the Rank of Second Lieutenant. Served as a B-24J ‘Liberator’ Bomber Bombardier, 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. Friday, January 21, 1944 he was killed in action during take-off, when the pilot experienced engine failures, crashing into the Tarawa Lagoon. Later his Brothers-in-Arms buried him in the Marine Lone Palm Betio battlefield cemetery. In the post-war era, his remains were repatriated from Betio Island, and his family requested that he be buried with Military Honors at Honolulu Memorial Cemetery Location: Honolulu, Hawaii, with interment January 31, 1949. 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.