World War II Honoree
Killed In Action
William B. Hagin
Branch of Service
U.S. Army Air Force
Hometown
Phoenix, Arizona
Honored By
Orville L. Kline
Rank: Staff Sergeant. Inducted into the United States Army Air Corps August 21, 1942 at Phoenix, Arizona. After completing his basic military training, he was designated to attend the Flight Aviation Training Program. He served as a Right Waist Gunner aboard a B-17 ‘Flying-Fortress’ Bomber, assigned to the 322nd Bomber Squadron, 91st Bomber Group, and a subordinate unit of the U.S. 8th Air Force ‘Mighty Eighth’ Army Air Forces. His unit was based at the Bassingbourn Royal Air Force Station Location: Cambridgeshire, England. Tuesday, August 17, 1943 he was killed in action, when his Bomber was shot down by German fighters, and crashed near the village of Mayhem, Germany. His squadron was dispatched to assist in a bombing raid on the ball-bearing factories Location: Schweinfurt, Germany. Personnel from a Graves Registration Company buried him in the Margraten Battlefield Cemetery in Aachen, Holland. In the post-war era, this Airman’s family requested that he be buried with Military Honors at the Greenwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Phoenix, Arizona. 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 Heroism and ultimate sacrifice.