Pfc. Vernon Engelbrecht   

By far the most complete story of protocol in relation to this unfortunate military air crash is preserved by the sister of Pfc. Vernon C. Engelbrecht. When I sent David's story to "The Journal Gazette" in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, the response was most rewarding. Nancy Vendrely, a writer for that publication, was assigned the task of preparing the story for the Veteran's Day edition. She was fortunate to have found that some members of the family of Vernon C. Engelbrecht, well into retirement but still active, were very interested in the story. Leona Sievers, his younger sister, remembered vividly the days of helplessness as they were informed that their much loved brother was lost in the California wilds. Every day there was another telegram, which was agonizing for the family. There was word that after eight bodies (and part of a ninth) were found, none was identified as Vern's. The fuselage had to be disassembled on the site, for Vernon was trapped beneath.

The military recommended that the family authorize cremation, but this religious family would have none of that. His body was returned in a closed coffin, but Leona remembers that on top of the coffin encased in a sort of bubble top was an Army Air Corps uniform, complete with tie. He was buried with full military honors. The graduating class of 1941 of his high school purchased War Bonds in his memory. Salutations came to this American Gold Star Mother* from Ft. Wayne city dignitaries and from President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Engelbrecht had finished a correspondence course from Casey Jones School of Aeronautics in Newark, NJ, and this knowledge qualified him for training as an aircraft mechanic.

Earlier in this story, I mentioned that a famous movie star, Carole Lombard, died in a plane crash in Nevada at the same time this wreckage was found. Ft. Wayne, Indiana, was Lombard's home town, and the stories of Vernon Engelbrecht and Carole Lombard were printed side by side in the Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette of January 17, 1942.

--M.S, July 1995

* Gold Star Mother: a mother who lost her son in the service of his country during wartime was presented with a "Gold Star". It was a lapel pin of a gold star, resting on a purple ground and surrounded by laurel leaves, according to a representative of American Gold Star mothers, Jeanne K. Penfold, of Washington, D.C. For anyone who had a son in service, a window banner with a blue star could be purchased at a hardware store. If a son was injured, the blue star could be covered with one of silver, and if the son died in training or in battle the star was covered with one of gold.

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