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Lt. Frank Kobal
After college, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps where he was an honor student at the pilot training center at Randolph Field, Texas. After he received his commission he was assigned to the 33rd Bomber Squadron at Langley Field, VA just before the attack on Pearl Harbor. From there his unit was sent to California. He was married to Joy Hauser and had enlisted in the spring of 1940. Kobal's remains were returned to his parents, Mr. & Mrs. Valentine Kobal in Hinsdale, IL according to the death record released by the Preston Funeral Home in Riverside. Like most of these airmen, he was the very first war casualty from his hometown. Military burial services were conducted by American Legion Post 250, from Hinsdale, IL --M.S, July 1995 Back to "A Follow Up" |
Lt. Frank A. Kobal was the pilot of this doomed plane. He had enlisted
from Queens Village, NY. After more than a year of search, I found that
Lt. Kobal was originally from Hinsdale, Illinois, and his body was sent
there for burial. He was one of six airmen who hailed from Hinsdale, who
were recognized in a front page story of the "Hinsdale Doings", the local
weekly paper, on January 1, 1942. It was published only one day after the
plane he was piloting was declared missing. Shirley Stitt of the Hinsdale
Historical Society sent me the information after a search -- which up to
time time I had felt was futile -- because Kobal had declared Queens Village,
NY, as his home town at the time of his enlistment. There was no information
in the Queens Borough Public Library. Kobal graduated from Hinsdale Township
High School and attended Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana, although
one article declares that he attended DePauw University in Greenville, Indiana.
No matter, he was an outstanding student and had athletic abilities as well.