Still MissingFour months following the Armistice, the family of American observer Lieutenant K.P. Strawn are still hoping to find him alive.
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September 12th was the start of the St. Mihiel offensive and it is here the unit discovered the Germans could still exact a bloody price. The 11th and 20th were assigned to barrage patrols so the bombing assignments were carried out by the 96th. By the end of that first day, they had lost three flyers and eight aircraft. Friday the 13th was no better for the squadron when they lost two out of three aircraft after bombing German troops west of Metz. On the 16th, an afternoon raid cost the 96th four more aircraft and crews, only one crew, that of Lt. Charles Codman and his observer Lt. S. A. McDowell, surviving and being taken prisoner. Five more aircraft were shot down on the 18th. In less than a week, the squadron had lost over half its crews, a rate of loss not equaled by any other American Air Service outfit during the war." (via warnepieces.blogspot.com)
It would ultimately be learned that Lieutenant Strawn and his pilot, 1st Lieutenant Newton Rogers, were never POWs; they died in combat when their airplane went down in flames back on September 16.
(from the Evening Star, 31 March 1919):
(image a Breguet XIV of the 96th Aero Squadron, via wikipedia)
The 96th Aero Squadron headlined here last June:
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