World War II Honoree

Arthur E. Myers

Branch of Service

U.S. Army Air Force

Hometown

Zanesville, Ohio

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Staff Sergeant. Inducted into the United States Army November 22, 1941 at Fort Hayes Columbus, Ohio. Upon his graduation from recruit training, he was designate to attend the Flight Aviation Training Program. Served as a B-24J ‘Liberator’ Bomber Tail Gunner, 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 Dresden Cemetery Dresden, Ohio. This American Patriot received the following decorations posthumously: Air Medal and the Purple Heart. The Air Medal was awarded to the Sergeant for meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight, and the Purple Heart for his ultimate sacrifice.