Arlington

[Niederlander]

Pretty cool thing happened today.  2nd Lieutenant Alvin Beethe, United States Army Air Corps, was buried at Arlington with full military honors.  Cal was shot down and killed on November 26, 1944 while dive bombing a railroad bridge near Duren, Germany in his P-38J "Lightning".  He flew into heavy flak and never pulled out of his dive.  Cal's remains were recovered in 2013, evidently after German construction workers discovered one of the engines from his plane.  He was one of my heroes growing up.  Wish I could have been at his burial, but that didn't work out.  Rest in peace, Cal.

[Drydock]

Line up boys behind the drum
with Colors blazing like the sun
along the road to come what may
Over the hills, and far away

And if I should fall to fight no more
as other comrades did before
then ask the fifes and drums to play
Over the Hills, and Far Away

[Major 2]

2nd Lt Alvin Beethe attended high school at Elk Creek, where he graduated in May 1938. After this he went  to the University of Nebraska. Prior to his enlistment in the Army Air Corps, he was employed in Seattle, Washington, for a year, and then transferred to the Martin Bomber Plant at Omaha, where he was employed until entering the service at Santa Ana, California, in March, 1942. Additional training was received at Chico and King City, California; Williams Field, Chandler, Arizona, where he was commissioned; Salinas and Santa Rosa, California, and Redmont, Oregon. He was sent overseas in August, 1944, where he was assigned to the 9th A. F., 367th Gr., 395th Sqdn, which was first stationed in England and later in France. He completed 14 missions. On the 15th mission, which took place on Nov. 26th, near Düren, Germany, his plane crashed and since then he has been missing. Beethe was reported killed in action and his remains were not recoverd.

In 2008, the Department of Defense was notified that private citizens in Germany had located the wartime crash site. A DoD team traveled to Morschenich and surveyed the purported site. In June 2013, another DoD team excavated the site, and recovered human remains and aircraft wreckage. Lt Beethe's remains were identified.

On 8 June, 2015 Lt Alvin Beethe was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.



http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/army-captain-patrick-otoole-presents-the-american-flag-that-news-photo/476366826

[Pitspitr]

Uncle?

[Niederlander]

Thanks, Major!  Wish I could have been there to see that.  Cal was kind of a hero to me growing up, and was part of the reason I wanted to be in the military.  The country church I grew up in lost three young men during the war, Cal being one of them.  I wish his sister would have lived to see this.  I visited with her several times, and you could tell she really loved her brother and still missed him.

[Niederlander]

Uncle?

Third cousin.  His dad and my grandpa were first cousins.  He grew up in the same town I did.