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Post
Script - Ralph R. Hartley
For
many years after WW II ended, few of the 40th members
knew of the ultimate fate of Ralph R. Hartley who was
MIA on February 27, 1945. Probably Darrel J. Laird, who
was Hartley's close friend and confidante, and who was
flying with Hartley when he went down, was the most chagrined.
At the 40th Reunion in Tuscon in 1996, Laird greeted me
with these words "Has anybody heard anything about Ralph
Hartley?" Since then the records have been searched and
we learned that Hartley bailed out, was captured, and
taken prisoner on Formosa. The Japanese commander of the
prison camp near Taipei court-martialed 15 U. S. aircrewmen
and executed all of them in June 1945. The remains were
cremated and shipped to Shanghai for storage. Ralph Hartley's
records disclosed that he had a wife, Barbara, and a son,
Richard, who survived him. They were notified in October
1945 of the circumstances surrounding Ralph's demise.
It wasn't until October 1947 that Ralph was buried in
Smith's Cemetery at Bridgewater, Maine near the Hartley
home. In the meantime, Barbara had sent Richard to live
with his grandfather and grandmother and they raised him
to manhood in northern Maine. In January 2003 I talked
to Richard Craig Hartley on the telephone. He was born
in 1943 at Craig Field, Alabama where Ralph was flying
in the Advanced Pilot Training course. He attributes his
middle name to that fact. He regrets that he knows little
about his father, and nothing about his father's flying
experience in WW II. Richard seized his opportunities
in the construction business, now has a successful firm
in Maine, and has raised a family of his own. He related
that his mother went on to raise other children and that
he had known most of them. She led a productive and rewarding
life, but was deceased two years ago in the Dakotas. Although
there have been many others, Barbara and Richard are the
real life survivors of WW II, and who, having been dealt
the worst hand in their young lives, went on to make the
most of their future. Ralph Hartley would be justly proud
of the two people he loved the most.
Carlos
E. Dannacher, 40th Historian
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