CARL E. FEATHER / Star Beacon
DORIS GRIFFIN and her husband Laurel hold photographs of Doris? two veteran brother brothers (bottom panels) and her mother and father (top). William Lawrence (left), served in the Army Air Force and died in the war. His brother, Marion, was in the Navy and survived the war, but died mysteriously in a hospital a few years later. Laurel, a veteran, holds his Army photo from World War II.
Published October 31, 2009 12:56 am - Nearly 65 years have passed since Doris and Laurel Griffin were tracked down at a Georgia movie theater and told that Doris’ older brother, William Edward Shivers, was missing in action and presumed dead.
An unfinished war journal No closure in the WWII death of Orwell woman’s brother
By CARL E. FEATHER - Staff Writer - cfeather@starbeacon.com Star Beacon
Nearly 65 years have passed since Doris and Laurel Griffin were tracked down at a Georgia movie theater and told that Doris’ older brother, William Edward Shivers, was missing in action and presumed dead.
Today, Doris knows little more about the circumstances of her brother’s death than she did in December 1944. His body was never recovered; the B-24 Liberator on which he was a gunner was never found.
Her served with the 13th Air Force, 307th Bomb Group, 372nd Squadron. The group initially served in a defensive role in the Hawaiian Islands, but eventually moved into the New Hebrides, Solomon Islands, Los Negros Island in the Admiralty Islands, Wake Island, New Guinea and the Philippines. They attacked long-range targets, earning the group the name “Long Rangers.”
The Griffins, who live in Orwell Township, think of Edward every Veterans Day and on his birthday, June 8. Laurel, who served in the Army stateside during World War II, says his brother-in-law was so close to coming home. The B-24 crews typically flew 30 missions, then returned home.
The Dec. 2, 1944, mission was his 29th.
What little they know of that day is that the squad was heading to a bombing target when they encountered “tremendous” weather and were ordered to return to base, Laurel says. The B-24 Edward was in, plus one other, never showed up.
“The nearest they could figure out, the two planes had come together in the storm,” Laurel says. He said a crew member from one of the planes that made it back reported hearing what he thought was an explosion, but no evidence of the same was found.
Doris says the only personal belonging the family received from the Army Air Force was Edward’s journal. The small, black book is quite unusual for World War II, says Dr. Ken Lawrence, an Orwell dentist and military historian
“It was a court-martial offense to have a diary,” he said. If the diary were recovered by the enemy, it could yield useful information that could jeopardize the lives of other troops and the security of military operations.
“It’s actually easier to find Civil War diaries than those from World War II,” Lawrence says.
Doris and Laurel donated the diary and photographs of her brother to Lawrence’s collection of military memorabilia. The couple were impressed with his dedication to preserving the stories of local servicemen and women, and felt the material would be best entrusted to him.
At some point in its history, Edward Shivers’ handwritten journal was transcribed and subsequently posted to the Internet at a site dedicated to finding the missing “Coleman” air crew from another B-24 that went down in that area (www.missingaircrew.com).
The journal
The journal traces Shivers’ combat assignments during 1944. He started at an airfield on Los Negros Island in the Admiralty Islands in early June.
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